Celtic captain Callum McGregor has called on Ange Postecoglou’s side to learn from their mistakes on the European level after last night’s disappointing 3-1 defeat to the hands of Bodo/Glimt.
The midfielder, who captained his first European knockout round as permanent captain, has played his part in these sorts of fixtures in previous years against the likes of Zenit, Copenhagen and Valencia in the Europa League.
Speaking to the media in the aftermath, McGregor held his hands up for the mistakes made as a team on the night and called for the side to learn from them after giving up the two-goal lead so quickly once again, as the squad gets set for the second leg in Norway next week.
“If the game finishes 2-1, then you’ve got a real good chance,” he said, as quoted by Glasgow Times.
“That’s the naivety we’ve got at this level, in terms of being a new group. So, we’ve got to learn from that.
“We’ll do the analysis and learn that you’ve always got to switch on – especially when you score. That’s probably when you’re at your most vulnerable. We have to take that on the chin [and] reassess it. We go there next week, and we try to turn it around.”
It is good to see the players own up to their mistakes and realise in order to learn from them. But this has been a frustration of Celtic fans for several years, with previous squads not learning from the same mistakes.
With almost a whole new group of players, fans might be willing to give some players the benefit of the doubt, but they need to show in next weeks fixture that they have learned from what was a difficult game against a good side on Thursday.
Of course, first up is another league fixture with Dundee, which provides the squad with a chance to bounce back ahead of that trip to Scandinavia next week.
