Postecoglou applauds his players for sticking to their guns

Celtic manager insists dedication to style will stand side in good stead

CELTIC manager Ange Postecoglou has applauded the principles that his side stuck to in the challenging arena of the Champions League and remains confident that this season’s “pain” will encourage greater gains with repeated exposure to Europe’s premier tournament.

The Parkhead side have two draws to show from their involvement ahead of their final game against Real Madrid this week that will conclude their European involvement for the season.

There have been accusations that Celtic’s openness and offensive style should have been adapted to cope with the demands of the Champions League, an argument that

Postecoglou was never likely to place much stock in. And he has maintained that Celtic will not waver from that philosophy as they head into the Bernabeu.

“You’ve got to go through those experiences and feel that pain,” said the GreekAustralian.

“Some people just look at the scoreboard and that’s their only measure. I don’t know why half of them go to games because their only analysis around the whole game is: ‘they won, they lost’ and that’s it. We know, internally, what’s important. If we play our football against one of the best club sides in the world away from home it will give us more belief and fuel to come back next year and put on stronger performances.

“I’ve said from the outset that we want to test ourselves and that’s what we’ll do next week. In every game we’ve played in the Champions League, people can’t say we didn’t try to play our football.

“We’ve stuck true to our beliefs and have fallen short. We understand that but it doesn’t mean we’ll change our approach. The way forward for us to improve is to continually test ourselves against the best and improve the areas we’re short in.”

Shakhtar Donetsk may be the two games that Celtic will rue results from. Both could have been three points rather than one but Postecoglou has insisted that it is not a lack of being street-wise in the competition – Josip Juranovic might have taken out the impressive Mykhaylo Mudryk – but rather a case of being more composed.

“I don’t think cynical is the right word, we just have to be more focused,” said the Celtic manager.

“It was a really poor goal we lost against Shakhtar. It was a world class finish but from our perspective we lacked concentration at that moment.

“We had a set-piece but once it broke down our defensive structure was poor. We lost focus and discipline for a second and top talent will punish you at Champions League level. The players and us as a group will learn a lot from that.

“It doesn’t matter how much you’re dominating a game - it only takes a moment for it to slip away from you. We’re disappointed in how we conceded that goal because if our structure and focus was good, we could have prevented it.”

Reo Hatate and Matt O’Riley have been given compelling accounts of themselves in the tournament. Both players are relatively inexperienced in playing top level football but O’Riley was singled out for

mention on Tuesday night by UEFA’s technical observer while Hatate has also made a notable impact.

The challenge for both is continue the same trajectory, albeit that it is a path that may ultimately take them away from Celtic.

“Both of them have been great for us,” said Postecoglou. “For the majority of our players, it’s their first time in the Champions League.

“If you stacked them up against the Shakhtar players and look how many appearances they have at that level, even their young players have far more.

“For our guys, it’s their first time in Europe. So to perform at this level motivates them to come back and make an impact.”