Ange Postecoglou shows his disappointment at his sides’ lack of concentration and composure against European and Spanish champions Real Madrid following the 3-0 loss at Celtic Park on Tuesday evening – but with such high standards set, it can only bear well for the future if qualification is to be earned.
The Australian saw his team play extremely well in the first half, putting the Spanish side to the sword and they were unlucky not to score when Callum McGregor struck the post just after the 20 minute mark.
Daizen Maeda should have put Celtic 1-0 up shortly after the break, and when Vinicius Junior punished him moments later, Ange claims his side lost their composure in structure; with Luka Modric and Eden Hazard adding to the tally with three goals in 22 minutes.
And though the Madrid Galacticos did punish the Hoops, Ange saw enough from his ‘special football club’ to be proud of ahead of the trip to Warsaw next week.
When the first goal went in we lost our composure a bit and they’ve got the quality to punish you,” Ange said to BT Sport.
You’re not going to get too many chances and we created really good ones and we hit the post as well. That’s the fine margins and they’re good enough to capitalise. The first goal was always going to be crucial because it would have required the opposition to take some risks.
They controlled the game really well after they scored and we had to chase the game a little bit which leaves spaces. But we did not too bad. Up until the first goal we were well in the game and probably had the better opportunities. We handled their threats really well and caused them some problems.
We competed well. We had our moments which we didn’t capitalise on and that’s something the boys will learn from. This is a really special football club and they showed again tonight why it’s so special and our responsibility is to give them a team they can be proud of and can compete at this level every year and that’s our aim.”
As Ange said, the boys will learn from this great game.
The way Royal Madrid probe a team(us tonight) for defensive holes & weaknesses they can exploit later in a game is on another level; a seriously well organised intelligent team and coaching staff!