Ange Postecoglou heaped praise on the mentality his men showed to sweep Livingston aside - then urged them to show the same qualities when they step into the Bernabeu on Wednesday night.
The Celtic manager was delighted with his team's display at the Tony Macaroni where goals from Kyogo, man of the match Greg Taylor and the returning Jota restored their four point lead at the top of the table. And within minutes of the 3-0 win, the Aussie was already turning his attention to Real Madrid in the Spanish capital and making it clear that he and his team don’t intend on taking a backward step against the reigning European champions in their own back yard.
Postecoglou said: “I was really pleased as we had a really strong mentality about our performance today. From my perspective that was the pleasing thing as it can become a really difficult game and I am not saying it was easy but we controlled it playing our football. I thought our general play was good and our goals were good and I thought we could probably have had two or three more.”
Looking forward to the next challenge, and that attempt to get a first Champions League win under their belts at the final time of asking, the Celtic boss added: “What we tried to do in this whole Champions League campaign is experience it in the context of us testing ourselves. We have done that every game.
“I understand we have come up short. We know the areas we have come up short in, the areas we are looking to improve. They are not easy to improve.
“But in every game, we have not shied away from the contest. We haven’t gone in there fearing what the outcome may be if we take our normal approach. We have just gone in there and seen how we measure up and that’s what we’ll do on Wednesday night.
“From that perspective, I’m really proud of the players because it would have been easier just to go out there with damage limitation on your mind. But they are looking forward to it. They are looking forward to testing themselves again.
As I keep saying, the only way to get something out of these experiences is by not going into your shell and fearing what the outcome is going to be but by taking as bold an approach as we can. And that’s what we’ve done.
“Yes, we are disappointed. Yes, we wanted our results to be better. But no-one can tell me that we haven’t gone into every game playing our football and testing ourselves. Whether people think that deserves merit or not is kind of irrelevant to me.
“That gives me an accurate gauge as to where we are at. I’m under no illusions as to the areas we need to improve in. Neither are the players. And we will only get to that space if we really test ourselves.”
Postecoglou was delighted to see Jota back in action after missing five games and praised his team for their performances in the absence of the Portuguese and captain Callum McGregor. He said: “This time last year it was a challenge with key players missing and we kind of ground our way through and got the results.
“The football wasn’t anything like it is now and we have a much better squad now, more rounded, and I am obviously rotating the team which I think helps us maintain a level of performance because we are not fatigued but at the same time if you are making so many changes as I have it is bound to affect a little bit of our rhythm but again to give the players credit we haven’t allowed it to affect us, the mentality has been strong and that has been key to where we are now.”
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And he admits to being thrilled to see the likes of Aaron Mooy begin to make his mark on the team. Postecoglou said: “With Aaron, (Sead) Haksabanovic and Oliver (Abildgaard), all the guys who came in late, we knew it would take time for them to get up to speed.
“We didn’t have high expectations but we had to keep things going so he (Mooy) had to get up to speed and get fit by playing and that probably didn’t do him any favours because he probably looked a little bit off the pace.
“But I know him really well, I know what kind of players he is and he is growing into it. He will go to the World Cup and I think we will see the best of him in the second part of the year and he will be an important player for us.”
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