Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou moved quickly to stick up for his players' uneven second half against Rangers and insisted his men "aren't robots"
The Premiership champions suffered a 45 minutes to forget at Ibrox before top scorer Kyogo popped up in the final minutes to power a shot high past the despairing Allan McGregor. The hard-fought draw has the champions nine points clear and boasting a superior goal difference. Postecoglou watched Daizen Maeda slot home the opener before Ryan Kent and James Tavernier fired the hosts ahead. But the 'Never Stop' mantra was there for all to see.
The Celtic boss, speaking to the Sky Sports, said: "Great game of football, mate, before we get into the analysis. Cracking game, all eyes are on this game, not just in Scotland but around the world. Both teams were at it and it was a real, proper derby. It was a cracking game.
"We started the game really well, we lost control of it, mainly self-inflicted, because of our passing. We were making sort of mistakes, errors in our passing which we don't usually do. It allowed them to get back into it and they got a bit of momentum, especially with the crowd behind them, especially the beginning of the second half, it allowed them to get a foothold for 20 minutes. It's very easy to resign yourself to your fate but we haven't done that all year, all last year.
"It's a difficult place to come to, they've thrown everything at us, we knew how important the game was in the context of the league and everything else. I thought for the most part we handled it ok."
And he moved quickly to shut down any notion of frustration after his side's uncharacteristic second half. "They are human beings, mate, they are not robots. Like I said, it's a big game and big occasion. I just felt we tightened up in areas where our football is a lot more free-flowing. We didn't do that today."
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