On Thursday night, many fans were left disappointed with the end result away in Germany – but at the same time proud of the performance the squad of players put into the match.

Ultimately, squad depth was the downfall of Ange Postecoglou and his Celtic side on the night.

Although the Hoops manager was left disappointed in the same manner that the supporters were, the 56-year old made a determined statement in the aftermath of the fixture.

He insisted that he is extremely keen to work on his side and see them compete on the big stage.

“I’m not low,” he said, as quoted by the Glasgow Times.

“I just want us to be a team that competes at this level and I get disappointed when the players and the fans put everything into it and don’t get the rewards.

“I take that to heart, but it just further fuels the fire within me to make sure we get to where I want us to get to. We are a team that can compete at this level.

“We are not at Bayer Leverkusen’s level, absolutely not. But that is where we want to get to, and we went out, hung in there and gave ourselves a chance for a result and also found out that, while the gap is there, I think it was smaller than it was the last time we played them.

“People can make their own assessments based on what they see and what we are doing. Some people might look at it and see results like Leverkusen and think we’re not there.

“Others might see that we are developing and think that through this Europa League tournament, we have got stronger.”

Slowly but surely, as the months have passed, we have continued to see the improvements in Postecoglou’s Celtic side, and that trend continued on Thursday.

If we can add more quality and depth to the squad, there is huge belief within the Celtic support that we will see them reach that stage under Ange.