Banik Ostrava celebrated their 100th anniversary this evening but there was no sentimentality from Ange Postecoglou’s Celtic who overcame the Czech test with a 4-2 win.
Celtic conceded early on but after finding an equaliser through Kyogo Furuhashi dominated large portions of the fixture.
A long-range stunner from Matt O’Riley had the Bhoys ahead before a superb off-balance volley from Giorgos Giakoumakis made it comfortable at 3-1.
The home side did pull one back after more slack defending but Liel Abada popped up at the other end to fire in the fourth.
Overall it was a pleasing performance from the team with plenty of positives.
Here are the three talking points we’ve picked out after the 90 minutes…
The perfect choice of pre-season clash
Tonight didn’t feel like a meaningless game. In fact, for Banik, it wasn’t one. The atmosphere reflected that.
Postecoglou and the club deserve credit for choosing this test for mid-July. It was a pitch-perfect encounter and was really more like an early European qualifier than a friendly.
The crowd were amped up, the home side were keen to impress. Celtic had to overcome that initially and build themselves into the match to make their quality count.
Obviously there was never any pressure on the players or consequences from a poor result, but it was a definite ramp-up from the matches in Austria.
It’s the ideal practice ahead of competitive action starting at the end of the month.
Celtic combinations already looking sharp
It really is encouraging to already witness the team get into good rhythms of play, patient but incisive build-up play and the kind of classy combinations we came to expect last season.
Greg Taylor was linking up well with Jota while Matt O’Riley was combining with David Turnbull, Kyogo and James Forrest throughout the first 45 minutes.
In the second half, those positive signs continued with Anthony Ralston, Liel Abada, Daizen Maeda and Giorgos Giakoumakis all impressing.
There are still lapses, and the final pass didn’t always come off, but it’s still early and we can expect the group to improve even more before the end of July.
Our attacking stars look ready to pick up where they left off. If the team can cut out the preventable defensive errors, we’ll be a formidable test for most teams we play this term.
Training camp has been a productive 10 days
I’ve really enjoyed the squad’s trip to Austria and the Czech Republic. You can see the effort and hard work of the players paying off already with double sessions and rotations through matches really building up that muscle memory.
The club have done their best to keep supporters informed of what’s gone on abroad with lots of media and live coverage.
I think everyone would agree it’s all heading in the right direction under the guidance of Postecoglou and his coaching staff.
Tonight was a fine way to cap it all off before a flight back to Scotland, where the team will now get the opportunity to impress home supporters on Saturday.
If they can do that, everyone will star to get even more excited before the Premiership kick-off.
In other news, Why a move for PSG midfielder Edouard Michut could be a real possibility for Celtic.
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