CALAMITY GAINS
Celts survive as Angeball beats the Angeballs-ups on thrill ride in Holland
ANGE POSTECOGLOU survived a fraught night in terms of the Europa League.
That, in the end, is all that mattered. But even he knows Celtic need to cut out the calamities if he is going to eventually get them to where he really wants.
Postecoglou’s Celtic are high risk, high octane. You can call it brave or you can call it naive at times.
But it’s thrill a minute and it was enough to make the group stage, even if they almost gave it all away during a chaotic spell in the opening period.
Joe Hart and Carl Starfelt were signed to shore things up, secured by Postecoglou to help cut out defensive disasters.
Instead the Englishman and the Swede quickly caught the Celtic bug.
And a horrendous howler from each of them piled unnecessary pressure on to their team to leave qualification under threat.
Kyogo Furuhashi must have been looking down from the other end of the pitch wondering what on earth was happening.
Inside the opening seconds the little Japanese striker did precisely what he was signed for – put the ball in the back of the net for the seventh time in his last seven games.
That put Celtic 3-0 up on aggregate and saw them place one foot in that group stage.
Then Hart and Starfelt put a bullet straight through the other to pile on needless tension. But this seems the way of it just now.
And while the defensive duo made the massive errors to put it in jeopardy, it has to be said the pair of them did their bit along with the rest of Postecoglou’s players during a brave second half that felt like a week to seal the deal. In knockout football it doesn’t really matter how, it’s just doing it. By making the group stage, momentum is maintained and belief grows.
A month ago, having crashed out of the Champions League and been humbled by Hearts on the opening night of the Premiership, Postecoglou was having to make running repairs.
Not only has he patched up Celtic, his revival is gathering real momentum.
Mistakes are still being made but improvement will keep coming.
Recovering from adversity on nights like this one will help as much as more new signings will.
Now it’s on to Ibrox for the Aussie manager and a vital derby. Victory for Postecoglou, or even avoiding defeat, would have his team above Rangers at the first international break.
That, as well as a spot in the groups, would be as much as any Celtic fan could have hoped for by that stage given the size of the job facing him when he walked in the door.
Last night it needed courage to stave off a nightmare.
And Celtic got there after a contest that was stretched and wide open from the outset – perhaps too open.
The manager had put Tom Rogic back in the team at the expense of Odsonne Edouard.
It was another statement that things were going to be done his way.
Postecoglou wanted attacking aggression but not even he could have envisaged taking the lead after just a couple of minutes.
Anthony Ralston’s raking pass over the top got Liel Abada away down the right. The Israeli didn’t panic with a perfect centre and Furuhashi buried it. It was a dream
beginning – new frontmen doing their jobs. But chaos down the other end would soon cause major alarm.
Hart had been a hero in the first leg with big saves at key times. But within three minutes of the opener he let the home side back into it.
Stephen Welsh wasn’t free of guilt. His failure to deal with a long punt from keeper Hobie Verhulst caused an issue that needn’t have arisen.
Nonetheless, the former England keeper should have hoofed it to safety.
Instead he dithered, allowing Zakaria Aboukhlal to nip the ball off his toe and score.
The timing could hardly have been worse and having dished out such a swift reprieve, Celtic had to weather a storm. All the while Greg Taylor was nursing a shoulder injury sustained in the opening seconds.
He got to 24 minutes before Adam Montgomery had to take over.
Within seconds his team had lost another goal, again to another absolute howler. Yukinari Sugawara’s cross was simple for Starfelt to deal with – or it should have been.
But as he attempted to volley clear with his left peg, the Swede took a fresh-air swipe, it hit his right and rolled over the line. It would have been comical if it wasn’t so abysmal.
Celtic were at sea for a moment. Hart saved from Aboukhlal as they got to the interval without inflicting any more damage on themselves.
But the worry wasn’t quite over. Postecoglou’s men kept giving away the ball and inviting pressure after the restart, with Hart forced to make another excellent save to deny Aboukhlal.
Then came a key change. Edouard replaced Rogic to get a foothold for Celtic and it had the effect. The Frenchman got his team up the pitch.
Moving into the final quarter, they had taken the heat out of it. One passage of play even saw a deflected shot wide for Montgomery. Ryan Christie was back in the game and struck a deflected shot over when he could have played Furuhashi in.
Edouard tried to get his fellow forward away in the box after some great hold-up work.
They had doused AZ fires but it’s never simple with Celtic in Europe and the home side would have taken the tie to extra-time but for an incredible miss from home sub Ernest Poku.
Keeper Verhulst was up for injury-time corners. It was edge of the seat stuff but that’s how Celtic roll under Postecoglou.
And he’s in the group stage, so he’s getting it right.