Frustrated Ange Postecoglou didn't offer his Celtic stars any wiggle room after defeat to Sydney as he slammed his players for being "nowhere near where we need to be".
The Hoops came into the Sydney Super Cup opener with plenty of momentum having entered the winter break with a nine point advantage over Rangers in the Scottish Premiership title race. They looked to be continuing that positive form against the A-League side when Kyogo fired Celtic into the lead at the Allianz Stadium.
Robert Mak cancelled out the opener as he shrugged off pressure from Stephen Welsh, with Celtic's forwards being denied on several occasions by Sydney stopper Thomas Heward-Belle. In the end Postecoglou's men were hit on the counter attack when Max Burgess unleashed a stunning strike with his left foot to beat Benjamin Siegrist.
Defeat puts a dampener on the homecoming for Postecoglou and he wasn't willing to write off the defeat as just a friendly. He insists the players can have no excuses and must bounce back during Sunday's showdown with Everton.
He told Celtic TV: "It was fair to say that we were nowhere near the level we needed to be. It was an entertaining game and there was plenty of goalmouth action for both teams, but we were well off it today.
"To Sydney's credit I thought they were the better team in the first half and they deserved to win. We were well off it no matter, whether it's a player who has or hasn't been playing.
'We were nowhere near where we need to be. In football if you are not then you don't get the outcome you need. We will recover from this and get ready for Sunday.
'We will have a session on Saturday and prepare as we always do. We will make sure we are in the right mindset."
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