Ange Postecoglou was keen to emphasise Celtic’s five year absence from the Champions League when he faced the media after the 1-1 draw with Shakhtar Donetsk.
There was a hint of disappointment from some supporters about the result but the Australian was bringing context to the result rather than seeking to deflect from it.
None of last night’ starters were involved in Celtic’s 2017/18 Champions League campaign, you don’t just saunter into the competition and instantly get it.
Callum McGregor’s experience was missing last night but if Celtic win the title this season they go straight into next season’s competition with a core of players that took the blows and set-backs of this campaign.
Some players are bound to move on next summer but there will be replacements. However never again will Postecoglou have a rebuilding job like the one he walked into last summer.
Improving on finishing is one obvious issue but the intangible that is experience gets teams through awkward situations. This season there has been periods in the second half of each of the matches where Postecogou’s side have been caught short.
? “We haven’t been in this competition for five years. If you do that it’s very hard to just come in and make an impact.”
Ange Postecoglou gives his take on the Champions League after a bottom-placed finish in their group was confirmed.https://t.co/6f1rMMeFkp
— Clyde 1 Superscoreboard (@ClydeSSB) October 25, 2022
Picking up on the Australian’s post-match comments Radio Clyde reports:
We know the areas we have fallen short in this campaign and they are the areas we obviously need to improve in. But that only comes with experience and learnings and improvement.
That’s our task – to take what we learned this year and improve for next year but we have to qualify again. We haven’t been in this competition for five years. If you do that it’s very hard to just come in and make an impact.
Our job and my responsibility is to make sure we are there every year. If we are there every year and keep chipping away at it then we will be able to make more of an impact.
There is Madrid next week and farewell to Europe for the season. From there on in the SPFL Premiership title is the target and a return to mixing it with the elite of the European game.
I am not sold on this “We Need Experience” line. Football is a simple game. Having said that, we have a very young team. I think we did okay in the UCL. We matched, home and away, our nearest rival. But, under Brendan Rodgers, we qualified for the Groups by pumping Shaktar over two legs. So have we made progress? I’m not so sure!