Norwich boss Dean Smith heaped praise on Celtic after watching his side fall to a 2-0 defeat at Celtic Park.
The Canaries came to town for the Hoops final pre-season game before the real stuff starts next weekend.
The Bhoys looked comfortable and dominated proceedings. Goals from Daizen Maeda and David Turnbull were enough to get the victory.
A 2-0 win and a clean sheet going into the new season will please Ange Postecoglou.
However, the Norwich boss was also pleased, not by the result, by the standard of opposition.
“It was a great game for us at this stage of pre-season. Celtic are a very good technical team with lots of great movement, who made it really difficult for us at times.” Smith told the Norwich website.
“I thought we defended really well, although our use of the ball could be a little bit better. Neither goalkeeper was really worked that much, but the tempo that they played at meant our players were having to match that, even without the ball.”
The great news is, Celtic has more gears to go through and while they were comfortable against Norwich, they have the potential to blow some teams away this season.
Smith continued in the Glasgow Times: “Celtic are a good level team. You can see what they have been working on.
“They have good rotation and movement, full-backs coming inside and the wide players drift onto the outside and try to give overloads in different parts of the pitch. They have really good movement too.
“They are probably a Premier League team in the making”
The SPFL kicks off next weekend and we can’t wait to see the bhoys in competitive action. It’s been a strange pre-season without qualifiers, we’ve been able to really concentrate on fitness and working within Ange’s high press system.
We now get back down to business.
a premier league team in the making is an insult we are a champions league team as of right now
Nobody really believes that all leagues are created equal!?
SPL sadly is not yet comparable with La Ligue, EPL or Serie A,
I think his statement was a cheeky reference to tempting a breakaway from SPL to a more competitive league for The Bhoys. Never going to happen! Celtic are the cash-cows for the SPL.