"Yeah why not?"; Ange Postecoglou's class Celtic response to Real Madrid question

By John McGinley

September 3, 2022

Ange Postecoglou is relishing the prospect of testing his Celtic team against Real Madrid on Tuesday night to kick off the club’s 2022/23 European season.

With no qualifiers this year, supporters have had to wait for continental action, and it genuinely couldn’t be bigger than hosting the reigning Champions League holders off the back of a 4-0 thrashing of Rangers.

Asked by BBC Radio Scotland whether Celtic can win the upcoming fixture following today’s efforts, Postecoglou said [14:44]: “Yeah, why not? All we can do is keep doing what we’re doing. We’re playing against an unbelievable football team, of great pedigree.

“We’ll go out there and test ourselves. We’ll go out there and play our football and test ourselves. That’s always been our marker. We want to go out there and be ourselves and give the best of ourselves and see where it takes us.”

Real Madrid aren’t in bad form themselves. In fact, they made it four wins from four earlier today against Real Betis to move clear at the top of La Liga. Three of those victories have come away from home.

They will easily be the most difficult foes Celtic have come up against since Ange Postecoglou arrived at the club last summer, but you get the sense that only excites him. He loves being the underdog.

If Celtic can harness the power of the crowd on Tuesday night, feed off that underdog spirit and connect well in possession, anything can happen. We know that from years gone by in this competition at Celtic Park.

So yeah, why not? I fully concur with the manager here. We have to go into these games dreaming and aiming for the win. The players will have full belief they can do that come kick off.

In other news, Ange Postecoglou’s brilliant derby verdict; references Celtic supporters.