Ange Postecoglou fired a dig at the media for their “glass-half-empty” questions after last night’s draw between Celtic and Midtjylland.
The Danes came to Parkhead and managed to grind out a 1-1 draw. That’s despite the fact Celtic put in a promising performance and bossed much of the tie.
Celtic led before the break thanks to Liel Abada’s first-half strike. However, a red card to Nir Bitton changed the nature of the game. Anders Dreyer would then be sent off for Midtjylland before Evander’s free-kick somehow evaded Vasilis Barkas to level things up.
Celtic had the vast majority of chances and could easily have taken a decent lead over to Denmark. However, Postecoglou was left frustrated when asked about Barkas’ mistake as he believed the media’s approach was a touch too negative.
As quoted by The Herald, Postecoglou said: “I’m getting a lot of glass half empty questions at the moment. I think there was plenty of positives tonight rather than people looking for little things that potentially didn’t go right.
“I thought it was a decent strike, we limited them to a couple of shots on goal with a really brand new back four. The midfield worked their socks off. The amount of running that Ismaila Soro and Callum McGregor and Ryan Christie did was unbelievable.
“There’s nothing I’m disappointed in tonight. I’m frustrated at the result because the players didn’t get the result I thought they deserved. I guess it was an opportunity missed on the weight of the performance. There was frustration with the result but not the performance and put in a tremendous shift.”
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Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou right to take so much from Midtjylland stalemate
Postecoglou was absolutely spot on to take the positives from the game against Midtjylland.
Yes, we all wanted a win in the manager’s first competitive game. It’s the picture-perfect scenario and would’ve set us up nicely for the tie.
Sadly that wasn’t the case, but let’s get real for a minute. When we go to Denmark next week, will you honestly not be confident after what we watched last night? Even with the squad issues we have, Celtic still looked like the better team.
There were opportunities galore. Outside of the free-kick that Barkas made a mess of, meanwhile, our rivals offered absolutely nothing. Even when it was 11 against 10, Midtjylland still struggled to create opportunities.
Sure, they’ll be more comfortable in their own backyard. We can expect an improved display from Bo Henriksen’s side next week. But there should be both expectation and confidence that Celtic can go there and get the job done.
So Ange is right to be focusing on the positives. Many had us down to get beaten soundly last night. That was anything but the case, and now it’s set us up nicely to finish the job off in Denmark.