Gutted Ange Postecoglou admitted Celtic paid the ultimate price for their missed chances as he RB Leipzig exposed the gulf in class at Champions League in ruthless fashion to bring a premature end to the Parkhead side’s return to the group stage of UEFA’s premier competition.
But Postecoglou insists he won’t shy away from trying to bridge that gap by doing things his way after suffering a 2-0 defeat to the Germans which ended their campaign with two games still to play. Celtic passed up a host of chances and were made to pay as £25 million man Timo Werner and Emil Forsberg struck in the final 15 minutes of a breathless match.
The Celtic boss - who played down fears of Liel Abada’s injury after the Israeli went off - told BT Sport: “The emotions are disappointment. Disappointed for our supporters and the lads. It’s a game we were well in but it’s the story of our campaign so far - just missed chances that cost us.
“It’s difficult. We’re talking about the highest level of club football and there’s different sort of stresses and anxieties around taking your chances at this level. It’s why clubs spend hundreds of millions trying to solve that problem.
“From our perspective all we can do is just keep sort of putting our players in those situations and I’m sure they’ll learn from it and develop. But when you’re at this level you pay the ultimate price if you don’t take them.
“I’ve said all along you can go through this one of two ways but we’ve tried to take the game to the opposition and match the opposition in all aspects. We’ve come away with nothing again, unfortunately, but I can’t fault the players endeavour or their application and they’re disappointed too.
“I know we had some opportunities tonight to get the result we wanted and we didn’t take them. You’ve got to keep persevering. It’s understandable our supporters are disappointed - we’re disappointed - but you’re not going to improve or progress by walking away from what you’re trying to build.
“We’ve come a long way in a very short space of time and want to keep developing at the same rate. But playing at the highest level as we are today you understand it takes more than just endeavour and effort. You need to keep applying yourself and putting yourself in those positions and we won’t shy away from being the kind of football team we want to be.”
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