ANGE POSTECOGLOU has vowed that if Celtic go down to Real Madrid on Tuesday night, they will go down swinging, as he offered a barbed riposte to those who say he has only one way of playing following his team’s demolition of Rangers.
The Celtic manager was delighted with his men after a double from Liel Abada either side of a Jota strike had them 3-0 up on their bitter rivals at half-time, before David Turnbull capitalised on a horrendous mistake by Rangers goalkeeper Jon McLaughlin to add a fourth late on in front of a buoyant Celtic Park crowd.
Postecoglou has consistently said he will approach the Champions League matches in the same manner as he does against Premiership opposition, and he is excited to see how his team shape up against the might of Real Madrid.
“What a great opportunity to play our football,” Postecoglou said. “If we’re not successful, fair enough.
“But let’s go down swinging rather than deferring to someone because they’re a good team.
“Our supporters want us to take the game to Real Madrid and see where it takes us. Let’s have a crack anyway.
“Maybe if I was German, Dutch or Spanish, people might look at me differently as a manager in terms of tactics.
“Apparently I’ve got one simple approach, a plan A. But we’ll just stick to that.”
The win for Celtic moved them five points and 17 goals ahead of Rangers already in the league standings after only six matches, but Postecoglou isn’t putting too much stock in those incredible statistics just yet.
Though, he believes his team weren’t getting enough credit for their scintillating attacking displays before they demolished Rangers.
“The league table isn’t important right now,” he said. “What’s important is how we play.
“If we continue to play like that, absolutely, we’re going to be hard to stop. That’s our intent. We want to be better.
“We’ve started the season really strongly but we’ve got stronger each week and today was another strong performance.
“People have been dismissive because they thought the opposition we’ve had so far weren’t up to it. We were brilliant last week but people spoke about how poor Dundee United were.
“That suits us because it ignores our part in it. It will be the same today.
“We’ll just keep doing what we’re doing. Five points doesn’t get you anything right now - that was shown last year.
“But if we keep improving and playing like that? We’ll be hard to stop.
“We were ready for this game but it was a step up in intensity levels. Rangers are a good team, no-one has said they aren’t. They’re in the Champions League and beat good teams to get there.
“But we were ready for them. People have said this is our first real test but we’ve played good football to be ready for this.
“Now we’ll get ready for Tuesday night. They’re an unbelievable team with outstanding pedigree. They’re champions of Europe but we’ll go out there and test ourselves.
“There’s no reason why we can’t play with that intensity and trouble Real.
“We don’t need motivation to raise our game. If you go to Ross County and score four, you need to be motivated or you slip up.
“To score nine last week and break a record, you need to be motivated. We were motivated today and we’ll be motivated on Tuesday night. We don’t need to change our approach to measure ourselves against the best.
“We’ll get really tested against Madrid but that’s what we want. You’ve got to respect the opposition. They’re a top team.
“But what we can control is what we bring. We’ll give our best, our way. That’s the key.
“This is who we are now as a team and won’t change.”
The only downside to the afternoon for Celtic were injuries to Kyogo – who came off after hurting his shoulder in the opening minute – and defender Carl Starfelt, and Postecoglou isn’t sure yet if they will be fit to face Real.
“It was disappointing for Kyogo because he’s been brilliant so far and was looking forward to the game,” he said.
“But that’s why we did our business in this window, to make sure we had a squad strong enough to cope. Last season, that may have cost us. Now we know that if we have to make a change, we can. Giakoumakis was very good, he caused them a lot of problems.
“It’s too early to say on Kyogo for Tuesday night. It’s a shoulder injury.
“We’ll have a look at him and Carl Starfelt over the next 24 hours.”
