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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
Sport
Ewan Paton

Celtic star Jota to miss Shakhtar Donetsk Champions League tie

JOTA has been officially ruled out of Celtic's Champions League clash with Shakhtar Donetsk.

Ange Postecoglou says the winger won't make it for tomorrow night's game at Parkhead. 

However, fresh from his Portugal international call-up, Jota could play a part in the weekend match against Livingston.

Postecoglou also revealed that Carl Starfelt won't feature in the Champions League tie.

He said: “Jota had his last rehab session and is expected to start training with us again after the game and be available again for the weekend. 

"Dave Turnbull’s alright. Carl’s back in training which is great but it’s too early tomorrow. The idea is to get him back in training in the next few days and see how it goes.”

On the match itself, Postecoglou added: “In the context of us continuing in Europe it’s a must-win game and our ambition is to try and achieve that and keep us alive. It’s not that because I think we deserve something you automatically get it or you feel like you’re owed something.

“My thought process around this whole thing is that if you keep putting yourself in that position of creating chances then eventually you get your rewards and that’s the key for us.

"We have to tackle it in the same manner, particularly here at home, put pressure on the opposition and if we create the same number of chances then it’s about converting them.

"From my perspective, it’s a lot better being in that sort of situation rather than trying to figure out how to create chances to try and score goals.

“European football in general we found last season in the Europa League the physical demands are greater than the Premiership because for the most part of Premiership games even though we try and play high tempo we have a lot of control of the games which means we’re not doing too much running back towards our goal.

“But you’re playing against better opposition and it’s more of a challenge for us to maintain that tempo when you don’t have the ball. But within that context I think physically, in all the games, we’ve performed really well but the difficulty then is recovery and back up for your next game when they’re so close together.”

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