It was an eventful evening in Vienna as Celtic faced Rapid Wien in their second pre season friendly of the summer.
After a convincing 7-0 victory over Wiener Viktoria, the Hoops were looking for more of the same. Ange Postecoglou was provided with the opportunity to see a huge 21 members of his squad in action at the Allianz Stadium in Austria this evening after making 10 changes at the break. Jota and Cameron Carter-Vickers were given their first run-outs since penning a permanent Parkhead deal with newbie Alexandro Bernabei part of the starting squad, too.
The Hoops thought they had their second win on a bounce in the bag before a last minute equaliser gave the home side their third goal to level up the scoring. And along with six goals, the friendly clash saw some feisty action. It certainly seemed like there was something to play for as the sides battled it out in front of more than 9,000 fans.
After the game, the Parkhead boss seemed happy with the performance as he told Celtic TV: "It was a good game. It didn't feel like a friendly game, both teams were going at it and that's exactly what you need. Friendlies can be passive but both halves, both teams were going at it and it was a good contest.
"It felt like a real game. Whenever you play away from home, particularly in Europe, it's always a challenge. It was a great exercise, we did well in some parts, in other parts we need to improve, but the key thing for me was it was a good contest.
"It's still early. The players returning from international duty have only been with us for a week and today was going to be a good challenge against an opposition who have had a couple of weeks more preparation.
"But that's what we need to do. We need to expose the boys to real football and real match pressure and make sure that in three weeks' time we're ready.
"There were some positive moments and some areas to improve. But you only find that out if it's a good game. We've got things we can take out of that and give feedback. Friendlies can sometimes be a bit meaningless but today was a good one."
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