Celtic travel to Germany to take on RB Leipzig on matchday three of the Champions League but the Hoops boss has been reflecting on his first Champions League experience.
Ange Postecoglou would have heard so much about European nights at Celtic Park and none were ever going to come much bigger than current European champions Real Madrid being the Hoops first opponent.
The club had suffered a hiatus from Champions League football having not been in the competition for five years.
As Celtic were crowned league champions last season, they were automatically entered into the group stages meaning they didn’t have to suffer and steer their way through difficult qualifying matches.
Real Madrid won 3-0 at Celtic Park but the scoreline doesn’t truly reflect the performance as Postecoglou’s side gave an excellent account of themselves holding out the European champions for just over 55 minutes.
Many lessons will have been learned from that game with the Scottish champions likely knowing that they must get some sort of result in Leipzig but the fans will be right behind them.
“The noise level, they sang through the whole game. They’re real passionate football fans. They’re totally one-eyed about Celtic and their club, but they know football. Luka Modric comes off, he was unbelievable on the night, but they’re still applauding him as he comes off,” said Ange Postecoglou speaking to Stan Sport.
“We lost 3-0 but they gave us a standing ovation after the game because they saw a good football match. They appreciated that.
“It’s been a constant, when I got the job a lot of people reached out to me who have been involved with the football club, or at the top levels of football and they said ‘Look, Celtic on European nights is special. No matter what you’ve experienced, you’ll never get another experience like that. I understood what that meant.”
The next batch of fixtures will decide Celtic’s future in the competition for the season and they will want to kick-on.
It was positive for the team to get back to winning ways at the weekend against Motherwell and many will hope that they follow that result up with something positive in Germany.
