Celtic’s Next Gen squad head to Aston Villa next week full of confidence despite losing to Sporting Lisbon last week.
Thursday’s clash at Firhill read like a traditional tale of woe as some promising passages of the game and the opening goal went unrewarded as the Portuguese side capitalised on a poor clearance to claim all three points.
The first half saw Sporting dominate possession but Celtic defended well and broke with purpose almost appearing like an away side in a two legged European tie.
Denny Johnstone’s shot midway through the first half was cancelled out just before the break but the second half was much more evenly contested.
Sporting defender Ruben Semedo could have been red carded for a dangerous lunge on Patrik Twardzik with the visitors making the most of that by snatching the winner 12 minutes from time.
“We want to win in these competitions,” coach Stevie Frail admitted. “We’re delighted to be in them but the important thing is that it’s a new level in the players development and hopefully that benefits them and the club.
“It was a bit of an injustice that we didn’t take anything from the Sporting match but we can take a lot from it into the next game at Aston Villa.
“They are a top side, from the Premiership. Last season we went down to face Manchester City, a side costing £6m to assemble, we saw clips from Man City tv and they seemed very confident of beating us.
“We turned on a terrific performance down there, arguably our best of the season, and we’ve got the same confidence to take into the Aston Villa match.”
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The second half at Firhill was evenly contested with Celtic just lacking a cutting edge around goal.
Barcelona beat Celtic home and away last season with Frail believing that the squad is getting closer to the standards of the top European sides.
He added: “We knew that Sporting were a top team, last season they beat Liverpool 5-1 and I was surprised that they never went all the way.
“I watched the Inter v Ajax final and it was a poor affar. We played Barcelona last season who were a top side and Sporting are up at the same standard. We knew that we were playing againt a quality team, you could see that with their passing and moving.”
Celtic travel to face Aston Villa on September 19 with the u-20 side in action on Thursday against Dundee United at Firhill, kick-off 7pm.
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Best of luck to the young guns, Villa as always will be a another tough nut to crack, Strong, Fast well disciplined. But the 2nd half showing should give us the confidence to take the game to them and cause them the problems.
Do us proud Lion cubs HH