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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
Sport
James Cairney

Ange Postecoglou satisfied as Celtic blow away 'pre-season cobwebs' in Banik Ostrava win

Ange Postecoglou satisfied as Celtic blow away 'pre-season cobwebs' in Banik Ostrava win

CELTIC manager Ange Postecoglou admits that his team were a little slow out of the traps in their 4-2 pre-season win over Banik Ostrava - but the Greek-Australian was pleased with the players' reaction to falling behind.

The Czechs took the lead within 10 minutes at the Municipal Stadium before goals from Kyoho Furuhashi, Matt O'Riley and Giorgos Giakoumakis turned the friendly in the Premiership champions' favour.

Banik Ostrava pulled another back midway through the second half and a few minutes later, Liel Abada restored Celtic's two-goal advantage.

Tens of thousands of fans turned up for the home side to celebrate the club's centenary and Postecoglou says he was impressed with their enthusiasm.

"Cracking atmosphere," he told Celtic TV. "They're still going.

"It's a big occasion for the club and great for us to be a part of it. It had the feel of a real contest and it was great exercise for our guys.

"The game was okay. We started a bit slow and I thought in general were a bit sloppy with some of our passing but on the flip side of that our good moments were really good. Again, another good game for us."

Postecoglou was then asked what he made of his team's response to falling behind.

"Yeah, it wasn't a response - it's just we were a bit sloppy with our passing, shades of early pre-season cobwebs," he explained.

"They're working awfully hard in training so they're not going to be buzzing going into games. But I thought after that we picked up and most of our good stuff was really good.

"But there are other areas we can still improve on."

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