Ange Postecoglou makes big claim about why Celtic lost

Celtic have had a few days to think about their 3-1 defeat at the hands of Bodo/Glimt in the first leg of their UEFA Europa Conference League tie. Having not lost since November, won the Scottish League Cup in December and gone top of the Premiership table this month with a convincing 3-0 win over the Rangers, the Hoops must have been very confident of their chances. Unfortunately, things played out very differently.

A number of questions have been raised about Celtic’s ability to compete in Europe after the result. While the tie is far from over, they have a mountain climb in the second leg away in Norway.

This was clearly a setback for Ange Postecoglou’s side, which had come a long way over the past six months or so.

The manager believes that ultimately, it came down to Celtic not being clinical in front of goal against Bodo/Glimt, which ended up costing them the game. As reported by the Daily Record, Postecoglou said:

"“You can look for a million different theories about why we didn’t win on Thursday night.“My gut tells me it comes down to if you’re really clinical in the front third you can win on any given day and if you’re not you can lose on any given day.“That is what happened to us on Thursday. It wasn’t so much about our performance, it is about what happened in the two boxes. They were super clinical, we weren’t.”"

Postecoglou makes big claim about why Celtic lost vs Bodo/Glimt

The stats would back Postecoglou on this one though. Celtic had more shots, shots on target, possession and passing accuracy than Bodo/Glimt.

Ultimately though, the Norwegian champions ended up scoring thrice from just four shots on target, while Celtic were only able to find the back of the net once.

Thus, it might really have been more about the end product than the performance in the first leg against Bodo/Glimt and that does give fans some hope of the club having the ability to mount a comeback in the second leg.

But at the same time, one also has to admit that tactically, Celtic did not get it right either. Matt O’Riley and Tom Rogic surprisingly started together for the first time and neither had a good game. On the other hand, Daizen Maeda did not look ready to start up front in a game of this magnitude, just a month after joining the club.