Ange Postecoglou isn’t buying the idea that fitness levels could prove to be the difference between Bodo/Glimt and Celtic tomorrow night.
The Hoops go into the contest 3-1 down after Bodo rocked up at Celtic Park and did a number on his side. It was a touch bizarre too given the Norwegian champions hadn’t played a competitive game since December.
Indeed, their season has yet to kick off in Norway whilst Celtic are well into the second half of their own campaign. It stood to reason that the Hoops were going to overrun their foes in last week’s Europa Conference League clash.
Instead, Glimt ran out comfortable winners, and Ange doesn’t think fitness is going to play much of a part in determining the winner. Speaking via Celtic YouTube, the manager said: “It’s a different kind of feeling. They had 3 weeks to prepare for 1 game and in terms of fitness, I don’t think we struggled the other night and I don’t think they struggled because it’s a one-off game.
“From our perspective, it’s more about making sure the players we had out there were feeling fresh. We’re obviously in the middle of a very hectic schedule with a lot of games. We’ve tried to rotate the team as much as possible without affecting performance. From our perspective, we’re looking at the physical parameters coming out of games. We’re still pretty strong in games
“It’s not so much about their fitness. And with the 5 subs you can sort of compensate for that a little bit. Towards the end of games, you can literally change half a team which should keep energy levels up as much as possible. For us, it’s more important about how we start the game. Make sure the guys who start the game feel really fresh. They will be because they’ve only had 1 game in the last month. I don’t think it’ll be the physical component that will decide the game in the end.”
Fitness won’t decide Bodo/Glimt vs Celtic – it played no part last week
If ever there was going to be a difference in fitness levels, it was going to show last week. The fact that didn’t happen should leave us in no doubt that Glimt will easily get through another 90 minutes tomorrow.
Ange is spot on too. Remember, they’ve had a couple of game-free months to prepare for this one. This will be the singular tie they’ve been targeting. For us, however, we’ve had to focus on a host of tough and intense domestic challenges even after this draw was made.
It’s fine saying that we’re well into our season and should be sharper. However, we’re playing games every 3 or 4 days. That’s bound to take its toll on the players. It’s a surprise it hasn’t shown before now even with the depth we have in the squad.
Where we can only hope it would prove to be the difference is if we take the game to extra time. Whether Bodo/Glimt are at the levels yet to go 120 minutes would be interesting to see. However, you would have to expect that they’ll have plenty in the tank for this.
As well as that, they’ve sold out their allocation for the game too. They’ll only gain more energy from that. So to hang your hat on fitness standards being the difference? It’s optimistic at best.
Ange won’t be giving it a second thought heading into the game.
In other news, Bodo/Glimt manager admits something annoyed him about Celtic victory
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
