Josip Juranovic admits he was willing to do whatever Ange Postecoglou asked at Celtic in pursuit of success.
The right-back was thrown in at the derby deep end at Ibrox by the Australian and pitched on the opposite side during his first test against Rangers. Juranovic had joined Celtic from Legia Warsaw in the summer of 2021 and left in January of this year for Bundesliga club Union Berlin following a successful 18 months in Glasgow.
That challenge of playing in an unnatural position was something the Croatian international was all too keen to swallow up, and when speaking with club media, expressed that he had no problems listening to Postecoglou's testing demand. He said: " "When I came to Celtic they had an injury at left back and the coach asked me can you play there because you have experience playing there. I was like 'yeah, I want to play'. It's one of the biggest games in the world. The biggest derby. I wanted that challenge. I played there and here [Union] as well."
Another top challenge Juranovic faced in Glasgow was this year's Champions League Group F section, where Celtic faced off against holders Real Madrid. He feels that it was a good performance that could have merited more but it turned out to be a brutal Parkhead lesson as Carlo Ancelotti's men clinically disposed of them 3-1 on home soil, before a 5-1 defeat in Spain.
The defender added: "At Celtic, we played Leipzig and Real Madrid. We were underdogs but we played really well, especially against Madrid, that was my first or second game in the Champions League at Celtic Park and we played really well.
"60 minutes we had chances, hit the post, but didn't score. Real Madrid is Real, they will punish you with half of the chances, in these games you have to be 120% ready as a group and you need a little luck."
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