Japan boss Hajime Moriyasu has hinted his countrymen's sensational performances for Celtic in the Champions League won't count for anything because he's only interested in when they play against big teams.
Celtic's Japanese trio of Reo Hatate, Daizen Maeda and Kyogo Furuhashi were hugely influential as Celtic swept aside Slovan Bratislava in the opening game of the tournament, with Kyogo and Maeda scoring.
But Moriyasu appears to be very reluctant to call on the Hoops star with Kyogo continually being snubbed for the squad and Hatate suffering the ignominy of not even making the matchday squad twice despite flying thousands of miles for Japan's World Cup qualifiers against China and Bahrain.
And although Moriyasu acknowledged their performances last week, he's suggested the level of opposition may work against them.
He said: "We had 12 players - our highest-ever number - playing in the Champions League and I feel that Japan's level has improved even further
"I'm looking forward to seeing how Japanese players will fight to win the Champions League in the future.
"The level of opposition our players were up against last week isn't everything, but it's definitely something we look at as a criterion.
"So I only want to look at how well Japanese players can perform against teams that aim to win the Champions League.
"And we also look at how well Japanese national team candidates can perform in regular league matches against higher-ranked teams and more powerful teams in the world."
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Celtic take on Falkirk in the quarter-finals of the Scottish League Cup this afternoon.
The Scottish Premiership champions will be looking to join Motherwell, Aberdeen and Rangers in the last four of the competition.
