Delighted Ange Postecoglou waxed lyrical over resilient Celtic as they outlasted rivals Rangers again to reach the Scottish Cup Final.
The Parkhead boss was beaming with pride and reckons his Treble chasers possess the knack of grinding out wins 12 months on from their Hampden heartache against Gio Van Bronckhorst's Seville-bound side amid their own stirring run to the Europa League Final.
The Celtic boss bigged up Cameron Carter-Vickers after his final appearance of the season but was keen to stress their winning mentality was a team game. And he reckons his heroes possess an added dimension against their biggest rivals. Speaking after setting up a date with Inverness on June 3, Postecoglou said: "12 months ago when we lost here, it was another tight game, I thought last year Rangers were a very good team, they had that resilience in them, that's why they got to a European final.
"They did what they needed to do to get the job done on the day. That's been our evolution as a team this year. It's not easy to develop, to develop that you need time and you need to be put in that situation as often as possible. But this group has learned very quickly, when you get to these games, the big games of consequence, you have to do what's required. That's what we did today and I think we have been doing that all year. In big games you need to show every facet of the game."
Postecoglou was pleased to see his side dig in and see the game out even when they weren't at 100 per cent and isn't fussed by the "narrative" that his side got lucky. He went on: "I get the narrative that we've been lucky but that's alright, we just keep winning games of football. I thought we defended really well. There were a lot of balls coming into the box but the two centre-halves were outstanding.
"The work-rate of our front players...Daizen Maeda was incredible, particularly in the first half. You have to earn these things and I was pleased this team showed they can be resilient as well as play the football that we know we can."
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