I just loved listening to Puskas’ old stories and he’d be so proud to see me face his former team
AFTER a 42-year wait, the prospect of Celtic finally locking horns with Real Madrid is exhilarating, awe-inspiring and perhaps just a little bit daunting. Ange Postecoglou might well feel that it was also somehow just meant to be. If the Australian’s love of football can be attributed to his father then no man shaped his philosophy on the game more than Ferenc Puskas. A mainstay of the legendary Madrid side which dominated the early European Cups, he became more than a manager to Postecoglou over the three years he was in charge at South Melbourne. Puskas’ main problems in Australia — a language barrier and the fact he didn’t drive — were willingly solved by his then left-back. Postecoglou translated the former Panathinaikos manager’s limited Greek into English for the dressing room and drove him around in his second-hand Datsun. All he asked in return were a rich seam of stories about Di Stefano, Gento and Del Sol, and their merciless slaughter of Eintracht at Hampden in 1960. Some 30 years on, 16 years after Puskas’ passing, there is something almost serendipitous about his Madrid facing Postecoglou’s Celtic. How the great Hungarian would have loved this. ‘Yeah, absolutely,’ said the Celtic manager. ‘He’d have taken a hell of a lot of pride in this because he was a massive influence on my career. ‘He’d have loved seeing me lead a team out against his side. I think it’s fair most people would have a bond with Madrid because of that relationship. ‘If you are a football lover then Real Madrid is one of those iconic clubs. They are the most successful team in the history of the European Cup and Champions League. ‘They’ve had a long history of unbelievable success. Some of the world’s best players have gone through their ranks. ‘And that team that Ferenc Puskas was a part of was a very special team. ‘They created a lot of the foundations of what you see today. The fact that I had a relationship with one of the key people in that, I’ve always felt that it was a blessing for me. ‘Certainly when I was with Ferenc for those three years, I tried to tap into as much of his experiences as possible. ‘I’d read the stories and watched television pictures but to get a first-hand account of what it was like to be a part of that special team was great.’ No one would ever claim that the current Madrid side boasts quite the talent of some vintages. Yet, they were still good enough to lift the European Cup for the 14th time by deservedly beating Liverpool in May’s final. While there surely isn’t a club in the world who wouldn’t welcome the mesmerising quality of Luka Modric or the dead-eye finishes of Karim Benzema, perhaps the greatest asset of the modern-day Madrid is the man who sits serenely in their technical area. Carlo Ancelotti (right) has won the Champions League twice each with AC Milan and Real, making him the most decorated manager in the competition’s history. No other manager has won the title in all of Europe’s top five leagues. Yet still some observers would raise questions if his name came up in conversations about the greatest dug-out dwellers of all time. ‘He’s one of the all-time greats, without a shadow of a doubt,’ Postecoglou insisted. ‘He has an unbelievable record. ‘If you look at the stature of the clubs he’s been given the responsibility of managing, it’s the biggest clubs in the world. ‘They’ve seen him as the man to lead them and he’s had success at just about all of them. ‘He’s an unbelievable manager. I’ve not met him but everyone I’ve spoken to about him says he’s an absolute gentleman. ‘That’s the thing with these guys. They are super successful for the most part, but they are good people as well. ‘The big clubs he’s been to all have huge histories and they chose him because he can add to it. He won the
Champions League last year and he probably has his sights on silverware again this season.’ The games with Ancelotti’s side will be pure box office gold. Which is not to say that the jousts with RB Leipzig or Shakhtar Donetsk will feel like B movies. Both sides have been regulars at the top table during Celtic’s five-year absence. It’s experience you simply can’t buy. ‘I think that counts for a lot and if you look at recent years, they have been involved in these games at this level,’ Postecoglou said. ‘When you do that for multiple years, it does build an atmosphere around the squad to deal with things at this level. ‘That is our challenge as a football club — to make sure this is not a one-off experience. ‘We want to be a strong enough team and a club to do this every year because that’s how you build a successful club at that level.’
Postecoglou will pay no heed to the fact the Germans have failed to win any of their opening three league games. ‘Leipzig have had a lot of personnel change and they’ve bought in some good players this year,’ he said. ‘They’ve maybe made a slow start in the Bundesliga but they will climb up the table and they will be a formidable opponent in the Champions League.’ Similarly, he feels Shakhtar will be every bit as dangerous when they play their ‘home’ games in Warsaw as a result of the Russian invasion. ‘They are in a strange situation and you feel for everyone with what their nation is going through,’ he added. ‘You can understand the effect on them. But you only have to look at Ukraine’s performances as a national team in the last six months. ‘We saw against Scotland there was a real determination there to keep on playing and making their country proud. ‘Add that to the fact they are regularly a Champions League level team and it will be a really good test for us.’ Much water will travel under the bridge before the sternest of examinations begins, though. The first Old Firm game of the season takes place next Saturday but only after Celtic go to Dingwall on Wednesday in the Premier Sports Cup. More immediately, a struggling Dundee United side lie in wait at Tannadice tomorrow. It’s easy to stumble when your mind is elsewhere. ‘The draw was great but we have games before the Champions League starts and what we don’t want to do is go into the Champions League without being in the best possible form,’ said the Celtic manager. ‘Sunday will be a difficult game for us. We had tough games up there last year. ‘Even though they have not been in great form, they will be looking for a strong performance against us on Sunday and we have to be ready for that.’