He makes a fair point, does Jota.
“Why would you think it wasn’t going to be our day?” he asks in the wake of Celtic’s 5-1 victory at St Mirren. Even 1-0 down on one of their more troublesome away trips, it felt like their hosts were a thousand miles away from claiming a second famous result against the reigning Premiership champions this season.
Perhaps the biggest compliment you can pay Ange Postecoglou and his team is that, watching them week on week, there’s a distinct absence of jeopardy. Charles Dunne’s red card shortly before the interval contributed to that, obviously, and within 10 second-half minutes the scoreline had been turned on its head.
“I think it depends on your approach,” Jota said. “Of course, the red card changed things in the match but our approach remained the same.
“It was the same from the beginning. We knew how difficult the match was going to be and we knew exactly what to do.
“There are different times of the game and different things happening, but we had to adapt. I think we did that pretty well. In the second half we knew the game would be more open and we just had to take our chances.
“We tried to play our game, even before the red card. It was a bit unlucky we didn’t manage to score. But after that moment the game opened up a bit and we just had to take our chances and that’s what we managed to do. In the end, we did it really well.”
An underappreciated facet of Celtic’s success under Postecoglou is a willingness to get their hands dirty on the rare occasion they do find themselves in a sticky situation. There was nothing pretty about their first two goals in Paisley, albeit Jota did very well to scramble the ball past Trevor Carson from close range for the equaliser.
“I was saying to the guys afterwards I couldn’t remember what happened,” the Portuguese winger said. “I know someone crossed and I ended up on the floor! I normally remember straight away but I had to go and check it again later.
“Have I scored a scruffier goal? Oh yeah! But in my opinion every goal is a beautiful goal. As long as the ball goes into the net then I am happy.”
There was certainly no doubting Jota’s joy afterwards – the 23-year-old immediately set off down the touchline, even giving the linesman an excited slap on the back as he went.
“The assistant didn’t say anything to me but I was just pushing everyone to go as fast as possible to celebrate,” he explained. “I maybe got over excited because we wanted to do the Remontada [comeback] as they say in Spain.
“I just wanted to go as fast as I could and when that happens you are in the flow zone. It doesn’t matter who is there, it could be the other coach, but I just want to go as fast as I can [to restart the match]."
From there, it felt inevitable St Mirren’s grasp on a point would be broken. And so followed goals from Alistair Johnston, Liel Abada, Matt O’Riley and Oh Hyeun-gyu.
Toiling away against 10 men can be tricky, especially against a side as dogged and disciplined as St Mirren. They tend not to give much away on their own patch, and it would be easy for frustration to creep in when met with that wall of black shirts. But Celtic’s approach was calculated, and after Johnston smuggled in the second, Saints shoulders began to sag as the visitors slipped into their stride.
“There are two points here,” Jota explained. “Firstly, we trust each other. Secondly, we know exactly what to do according to our way of playing and Ange’s vision. Everyone knows exactly what is required on the pitch and the spaces and opportunities will be there as long as we make the runs.
“If we keep doing our stuff, we will create chances. That’s happening in every game and then it’s up to us to score.”
The result was the perfect way for Celtic to slip into another important week. They next face Hearts twice in a matter of days – the Jambos come to Parkhead on Premiership duty this Wednesday night, before it’s up to Tynecastle on Saturday for the tie of the round among the Scottish Cup quarter-finals.
Postecoglou must surely drill the importance of day-to-day focus on his players, because when asked about the significance of such weeks they tend to deliver the same answer. Even with the prospect of yet another Treble looming large, it’s only ever about the next day with this Celtic side.
“It’s an important week but the philosophy of this club is we think game to game, day after day,” Jota said. “We don’t even think about the next game, it’s the next day of training. There’s no point in us looking to the future when we are still in the present.
“Let’s try to enjoy these beautiful times as much as we can because we can’t take it for granted.”
