Tommy McIntyre was delighted by Celtic’s opening day showing at the Aegon Future’s Cup in Amsterdam.
After losing 1-0 to Ajax this morning the u-17 Celt’s bounced back with a 1-0 win over Liverpool that was more impressive than the scoreline suggests.
Tomorrow the hoops take on Corinthians (kick-off 11am CPT) knowing that a win against the Brazilians will almost certainly book them a place in the semi-finals of the competition.
“This is a top tournament, the standard is very high and I’m delighted with the way that we performed,” McIntyre admitted. “We deserved something from the game against Ajax, it’s always tough playing against the hosts in these tournaments, but the players showed real character to come back against Liverpool.
“They came into the game on a high after beating Corinthians, we were licking our wounds a little but but our players responded really well. The win sets us up really well and gives us an opportunity to progress.
“Jamie McCart put a great ball through for Joe Thomson to score, it was well deserved. We created the better chances in the game, Kieran Lafferty could have scored with a header then Joe came up with an exceptional goal.
“Joe has a great knack of scoring goals, it’s not something that you can create in a player. He missed a one on one chance against Ajax but more than made up with that with his strike against Liverpool.”
Despite losing both games 4-0 McIntyre is in no doubt that Corinthians will present his side with problems tomorrow.
“Having watched Corinthians they have been unlucky in both games,” McIntyre added. “They’ll be looking to take something from the tournament and we’ll need to be careful about them.
“Obviously they’ve had a lot of travelling, they’ll be more settled but it’s about what we do and how we approach the game.
“Tomorrow is going to be a big day for us, we’re excited about it, we’ve put ourselves in a position where our destiny is almost certainly in our own hands.”
CELTIC v LIVERPOOL: McCabe: Wardop, McIlduff, Breslin, McCart, Hendry, Thomson, Nesbitt, Tierney, Boyd, Hill
