Josip Juranovic has backed Joe Hart to bounce back from a tough week in Celtic’s Champions League rematch against RB Leipzig on Tuesday.
The Englishman was at fault for Motherwell’s equaliser last weekend, misreading a chested backpass from his Croatian teammate, and then gifted Leipzig a second goal on Wednesday.
However, he also made a couple of crucial saves in yesterday’s last-gasp victory at McDiarmid Park, with Juranovic predicting that Hart will once again excel in the crucial stand-off against Marco Rose’s side.
As reported by Football Scotland, Juranovic said: “Tuesday will be a big night for Joe and one where he can show once again who he is.
“Joe is our second leader. He’s a great character and an excellent goalkeeper. He made a mistake in Germany but there is no way it will break him. Because he’s a champion. He has been for so many years now.”
Juranovic agreed with his manager’s assessment that Hart’s error in Germany was only because of his strict adherence to the team’s philosophy rather than any individual shortcoming, with the Croatia international also revealing that there were no hard feelings between he and the former England goalkeeper after last weekend’s Motherwell mix-up.
“As Joe said after the game, we play the way the manager wants us to play. It’s an attacking way, which the players want, and it puts individuals under pressure at certain moments. So mistakes are going to happen. But they don’t outweigh all the good things that we produce as a team,” he said.
“For example, if you look at our Champions League matches so far, we have created so many chances to score. If we had put away a higher percentage of them, we’d already be in a much stronger position in the group. But as we did last year against Bayer Leverkusen and Real Betis, we’ve shown that we can cause problems for some of the biggest teams.
“That’s exciting and it’s where we want to be. Against Motherwell, it was a mix-up between myself and Joe. I believed if I chested the ball back to him, he’d be in the perfect position to receive it. At the same time, he thought he could come and collect it. We both couldn’t be right and it ended up in the back of the net. You don’t want these misunderstandings to happen but it’s football, so it’s always possible. Joe and I spoke about it after the game and we’ve moved on.”
There was little doubt that Hart would come good for Celtic despite a difficult couple of games, and his intervention was crucial in maintaining Celtic’s two point lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership in a frenetic second half at McDiarmid Park yesterday.
Similarly, Ange Postecoglou’s faith in his number one has been unerring, and the Aussie was never likely to drop the former England keeper after a couple of challenging games.
Hart will almost certainly need to be on top form against Leipzig on Tuesday if Celtic are to find the three points they need to keep their Champions League knockout stage dreams on track.
In other news: RB Leipzig camp engulfed by drama ahead of Celtic Park trip
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