Postecoglou’s honest Celtic confession after Bayer Leverkusen game

Ange Postecoglou deserves a lot of credit for how much Celtic have improved over the past few months. The progress was clear to see against Bayer Leverkusen as well. The last time the two sides met, it ended up 4-0 in favour of the German side but this time around, the Hoops travelled to Germany and were not long away from getting a famous European win.

Ultimately though, Celtic did not have enough in the tank. They conceded twice after the 80 minute mark and it ended up in a 3-2 defeat against Bayer Leverkusen.

And it is clear that there are still quite a few areas to work on. But at the same time, the Hoops have already come a long way since the arrival of Postecoglou in the summer.

It looks like Postecoglou was also aware of the gap between the sides but is hopeful that they can bridge that soon. As reported by the Daily Record, the manager told Celtic TV:

"“We know there’s a gap between us and the best but we’ll bridge that gap if we keep taking this approach whenever we play these teams.“They knocked us off 4-0 at home and we gave them a bit of a fright here and hopefully next time that gap’s even smaller.”"

Celtic still have a lot of work to do but there is cause for excitement

Celtic have shown unquestionable progress in the past few months. They came into this game riding an impressive 9-game unbeaten run which included eight wins. And while that streak might have come to an end, the performance was cause for hope when it comes to the future.

Celtic are expected to strengthen their squad soon when the January transfer window reopens. And to be honest, their lack of depth was one of the big reasons why they could not hang on and grind out a result against Bayer Leverkusen on this occasion.

What is done is done though and Celtic are set to head out of the Europa League when the group stage comes to an end. They do have a Europa Conference League run to look forward to though and it will be interesting to see how they do there.