Youth coach John Kennedy was delighted by Celtic’s 4-2 win over Manchester City in the Next Gen Series.
Going into the match Kennedy and his fellow coaches were confident of success and had their judgement verified and more by a performance that was more impressive than the final scoreline suggests.
From the first minute Celtic set the pace with a double from Paul George in between strikes from John Herron and Tony Watt giving the hoops their first points of the competition.
“The team performance was excellent,” Kennedy stated. “There were strong individual performances but collectively as a group they were excellent.
“We knew that if we played as we could that we’d cause them problems. We created some excellent chances and could have scored more. They had one or two chances but overall I thought the scoreline reflected the balance of the game.
“The players knew that from the first two matches (against Marseilles and Barcelona) that they are more than capable of competing at this level. We’d watched Man City and knew that if we played our game and got at them we’d put them under pressure and create chances.
“We were delighted to create so many chances and score a few goals.
“I think that we were a bit unfortunate not to take anything from the earlier games in the Next Gen Series. We knew we had to play as we can for the full game to take something tonight.”
Celtic found themselves a goal behind after nine minutes when an uncharacteristic slip from Joe Chalmers allowed Joan Roman to cash in and put City ahead.
That blow could have put Celtic onto the back foot but if anything they became more determined and levelled the scores midway through the first half.
“As well as having ability it’s important at Celtic to have character,” Kennedy added. “We lost a goal but the heads never went down, they quickly got back on track and took the game to Man City which is what we wanted.
“They didn’t go into their shell, they showed outstanding character to come back and kicked on to prove themselves.”
Despite the driving wind and rain Celtic never wavered throughout the 90 minutes with their intensive fitness training paying off.
Some critics may equate fitness as a substitute for skill but when both aspects are combined the benefits are there for all to see.
Kennedy explained: “The way the game is these days you need to be super fit. To get in the Celtic first team you need to be at that level and it’s important that our players know that.
“We have a great sports science team helping us who are really tuned in to keeping the players in great condition. We do the technical and tactical side of things but late on the game we were still pressing and chasing balls.
“That’s important because when you come up against teams that aren’t as fit they won’t be able to keep up with you later on in the game.”
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