Ange Postecoglou rejected the notion Celtic served up their best pre-season showing yet in drawing with Legia Warsaw. Emotions ran high in Poland on Wednesday night as the Parkhead side took part in a testimonial friendly for club hero Artur Boruc as he bows out of the game.
Celtic were invited by Legia to take part in a celebration of the 42-year-old's career but the serious business of preparing a Premiership opener against Aberdeen in 10 days time was still very much on the manager's mind. The Hoops raced into a two-goal first-half lead thanks to Reo Hatate and Daizen Maeda but a sloppy second, amid a raft of changes, allowed the Polish side to drag themselves level.
The Scottish champions served up some impressive attacking football in the opening 45 but looked susceptible to the counter-attack throughout. Speaking to Celtic TV, Postecoglou was asked if the opening period was his team's best performance of the summer yet. He replied: "No, that's looking at it half glass full, absolutely. There was some good football but we can be better - we will be better.
"We're in a phase of pre-season where the boys are working hard. We're making some mistakes that are not normally there because of that factor but it's the only way we're going to be good this year if we work hard through this period.
"Once the games start, we won't be able to (make mistakes). There are examples to improve in the first-half, second half... there's always examples to improve.
"The point of the exercise now is not to win games of football, the point of the exercise is to prepare a team to win games of football. Today was another process for us where we need to keep building and working hard in training to make sure we're ready when the real stuff kicks off."
