Ange Postecoglou watched from the sidelines as we welcomed Blackburn Rovers to Paradise after our foreign adventures over the past few weeks or so.
Anticipation was high for this one with a good day weather-wise adding to the excitement ahead of kick-off.
The game didn’t fail to deliver either as there was a real hunger and desire from both sets of players – and even a few tasty challenges in there too!
The Hoops went behind after some slack play in midfield again – highlighting the urgent need for a defensive midfielder – as Rovers took the lead after just 22 seconds gone. Celtic did retain focus however, and managed to draw level through Jota who was his usual seamlessly classy self on the day.
We took the lead through a David Turnbull free-kick and were unlucky not to have had more, with Liel Abada proving a particular mennace for Balckburn’s Harry Pickering.
We largely controlled the game in the first 45, with some really excellent, fluent passages of play coming through O’Riley, McGregor and Abada.
Ange made considerable personnel changes at half-time and the fluency somewhat dropped in the second period. Never able to quite get a foothold the way in which we did in the previous half, Ben Brereton Diaz managed to equalise from a free-kick which banded into the corner past the on looking Benji Seigrist.
Over the piece it was a decent run out and test for Legia this Wednesday and Aberdeen on 31 July.
Ange was happy with the first half of the match but recognised the difference in the second. He said, via Celtic TV: “It was not too bad.
I thought the first half was good in terms of our competitiveness and our performance, both teams were at it and we conceded early but then we got a good grip of the game.
In the second half it got scrappy but both teams made a lot of substitutions so it’s hard to get into the rhythm for the players coming on.
“So the second half wasn’t great as an overall exercise but that’s the challenge of these games.
“I thought the first half was reflective of the work we’ve done so far, but we’re still two weeks away from the season. We did a lot of work in Austria and here in Scotland and it’s now about getting the guys in the best possible physical condition for the first game.
“That means working hard in training and we showed in the first half we’re going well and the work we’re doing will bear fruit.
“We want as a group to be ready to go when we play Aberdeen here. How we get to that space is up to us.
“There’s a lot of time to prepare with a few good solid weeks already in the bag and we have two more weeks now to get ready.”
Watch Ange give his thoughts on the match below:
Paul Gillespie
