Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou has insisted that if his side continues to display similar performances to the 1-1 draw with Shakhtar, the results will come.
The Bhoys picked up their first point of the 2022/23 UEFA Champions League campaign on Wednesday evening away from home in Poland.
Of course, a point away in European competition is never a bad result. But, there was some feeling of frustration coming from last night’s game due to the amount of chances Celtic created on the night.
In the second half alone, players such as Jota, Daizen Maeda and Giorgos Giakoumakis had chances to secure the Hoops’ first win in the Champions League group stages since 2017.
However, it wasn’t to be on the night, with both sides coming away sharing the spoils and Celtic now sitting 3rd place within Group F.
Despite the frustrations of Wednesday’s draw, there will still be plenty of positives to take for the Hoops players and coaching staff.
That was certainly the mindset of Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou, speaking directly after the 1-1 draw.
The 57-year-old insisted that despite not coming away with the victory, his players had put in an ‘excellent’ performance, and if they continue to play to those levels, the results will come for them in this competition.
He said [Sun Sport]: “The performance was excellent. Obviously, the result was not reflective of that. But I thought in the whole game the players gave everything and that’s all I can ask for. We needed that second goal, and we had good chances to get it.
“From my perspective, I can’t ask for more from the players, though. We will get our rewards if we keep playing that kind of football and showing that sort of commitment.
“We have to embrace the fact that everything we get, every goal, every point, every win, is going to be hard-earned. There are no easy ones at this level. We put everything into this game.
“We didn’t get the three points, but if we keep doing that, I think it will give us a chance of being successful in every game we play.”
He continued: “It’s obviously always difficult at this level to dominate games, but I thought we started the game really well and scored our goal.
“They got one on the counter-attack, but I thought we regrouped really well after that, and in the second half, we were in control.
“So I think more significant than the point is the performance. It is the highest level of club football. Every game is pressurised, every moment of every game is important. I just thought there was real growth in our team and in the way we handled it all.”
Ange Postecoglou is correct to look at the positives; it is now about putting those into action.
One point from six may seem a little disappointing to some. But, there is a lot more context that should be added surrounding those games.
Against both Real Madrid and Shakhtar Donetsk, the Bhoys put in strong showings and really could have come away with their first three points at this stage already.
There are certainly a lot of positives to take from last week and Wednesday’s game, with the Hoops showing that they can compete home and away in Europe.
And Ange is spot on in his assessment that should the squad keep up those level of performances, then the reward will eventually come.
Now, it is about putting those positives into action and taking our big chances when they fall for us in these sorts of games.
Hopefully, the players will have learned a lot from our opening two games, and we can see those improvements made within the next few group games.
In other news, Reo Hatate handed opportunity to impress ahead of World Cup alongside Celtic teammates.
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