Juranovic is convinced Joe will bounce back from his Leipzig howler to show true class
Josip Juranovic says Joe Hart will prove he is a true champion when RB Leipzig come to Celtic Park on Tuesday night.
Former England No. 1 Hart blundered badly against Leipzig in the Hoops’ 3-1 loss in Germany last week.
Attempting to pass out to Greg Taylor, he instead picked out Dominik Szoboszlai and from the midfielder’s set-up Andre Silva went on to score.
“This next game against Leipzig will be a big night for Joe,” said Juranovic, who watched on helplessly from just a few yards away.
“But it is a night in which he can show once again who he is. He is our second leader, a great character and an excellent goalkeeper.
“He made a mistake in Germany, yes. But there is no way it will break him because he is a champion. He has been so for many years, for his club and for his country.
“As Joe said afterwards, we play the way the manager wants us to play, the attacking way that the players want to play and it does put individuals under pressure at certain moments.
“Mistakes are going to happen but they do not outweigh all the good things that we produce as a group. “If you look at all our Champions League matches so far you will see we have created many, many, chances to score.
“If we had put a higher percentage of them away then we would already be in a much stronger position. “As we did last year, though, against teams like Leverkusen we are showing we cause problems for some of the biggest teams. “It is exciting and it is where we want to be.” The Croatian internationalist speaks of errors from
recent experience. He scored an own goal against his close friend in Celtic’s Premiership win over Motherwell eight days ago.
“It was a mix up because I believed that if I chested it back then Joe would be in the perfect position to receive the ball,” he said.
“At the same time, he was sure he could come out and collect it.
“Unfortunately, we both could not be right and the ball ended up in the back of the net.
“Of course, you do not want these misunderstandings to happen but this is football and it is always possible.
“Joe and I spoke about it after the game, the manager spoke about it too (when mentioning it was not a computer game where he could control the players) and we have moved on.”
The full-back, who will go to Qatar with his country for the World Cup Finals, is upbeat about Celtic’s Champions League chances in general.
“Germany was a difficult night but this is a fresh opportunity for us, both in terms of making it right against RB and improving our position in the group,” he said.
“RB have some very talented footballers, there is no doubt. That is OK, this is the Champions League and everyone knows the standard at this level is the best.
“You can look at a player like Christopher Nkunku and see that with his pace and skill he is very hard to stop. However, we know that if we work together we can do it.
“Real Madrid are the European champions and some might imagine that is because they have some brilliant players in their group.
“It is true, they do. At the same time, they won last year because of the way they played as a team. That was a lesson for everyone.
“We have gone to Leipzig and Shakhtar, now it is their turn to come to our home.
“I think everyone knows it is no easy thing for an opposition team to come up against us at Celtic Park because of the unbelievable support we have there.
“If we can win these games – as I am sure we can – then we can progress through the group.”