Celtic toppled their nearest challengers in Scotland in the League Cup final last weekend and now Ange Postecoglou’s side are aiming to make their mark on the world.
That’s according to Portuguese winger Jota, who was once again an influential figure against Rangers at Hampden Park as he added a third trophy to his Parkhead haul since first signing for the club on a loan deal back in September 2021.
After a hugely successful first campaign, the forward made Glasgow home as he penned a permanent deal last summer, and he has not looked back since, with success after success arriving for a domestically dominant Celtic.
The latest of which came at the national stadium on Sunday, and Jota admits the further spoonful of silverware is just making him and his teammates hungry for even more.
He explained: “I’m very happy to win the cup, I think we deserved it after what we did on the pitch, and this is a day for every Celtic fan to be proud and to celebrate.
“I definitely think we could have scored more in the first half, but in the end, I think our strength in our defence showed how much we wanted to win this game as well.
“We now want to achieve bigger things. We want to make a mark in the world and a mark in Celtic.
“We know the way we have to go, and for that to happen, we have to be humble and we need to work a lot every day because everything can change from one minute to another. We just have to be ready for that.”
Jota’s choice of the word “humble” was in stark contrast to that of his Rangers winger counterpart Fashion Sakala, who in the build-up to Sunday’s game branded Celtic “the other mob” and claimed that Michael Beale’s side were the top dogs in Glasgow.
The comments came back to bite the Zambian after he missed from close range during the final and also came out on the losing side.
Jota claims he was unaware of the remarks in the build-up, as he, alongside his teammates, were fully focused on the task at hand.
He continued: “I don’t know anything about that. We just focus on ourselves, so it doesn’t matter what anyone else says.
“We believe in ourselves. There is an idea behind our game and then it is up to us to demonstrate that on the pitch. I think we have been doing that with a lot of quality.
“Football is about adapting to different circumstances, and we’re no different in that. In the final, we showed that we can do other sides of the game as well.”
Celtic were far from their flowing attacking best against their rivals at the weekend, but ultimately, they did more than enough to bring the League Cup trophy back to the east end of the city.
Manager Postecoglou said as much after the full-time whistle and Jota is in agreement that the Parkhead squad still have plenty of room for improvement.
With a Scottish Cup and a Scottish Premiership title still to play for this season, the proposition of further development and success fills the 23-year-old Jota with excitement.
He said: “I mean, we want to attack all the time and to recover the ball in high areas of the pitch, but sometimes we need to acknowledge that other teams have quality as well, and we need to adapt.
“Sometimes, we need to stick with our defensive principles. A final is a final, and anything can happen.
“I think with the amount of games we play each year, if we didn’t learn from our mistakes then something is definitely wrong, because we are not perfect. There is no team that is perfect in the world.
“We just need to understand in which phase of the games we are not that good, or where we need to improve, and then we just look at that and we improve. That is what we have been doing.
“That is why football is so beautiful. Every game, there is something different happening.
“We keep on making mistakes, but they are healthy mistakes, you know? Of course, there are mistakes we cannot commit, but the small details will then help us to be better in different competitions.”
Jota also hopes to take his own game to the next level, both domestically and in Europe, when the Champions League group stages come around again next season.
He added: “I think there is no fun in remaining the same person or the same footballer.
“We need to evolve, we need to be better. I think you personally will want to be better every day and I am no different, I want to be better every day as well.
“I know I will make a lot of errors, but those are the things that are probably going to make me go to another level, so that is my mindset.
“I’m someone who tries not to look too far into the future and tries to understand just what the present brings to me and enjoy it.
“Because tomorrow isn’t granted for anyone, so I just enjoy myself and want to be happy. Today we will celebrate, but then we will be right back to work again.”
