Postecoglou: It is a great experience for us to perform at this level

Celtic head coach Angelos Postecoglou summed up the game against Shakhtar.

– How do you comment on the result of the match with Shakhtar?
– We created many opportunities; unfortunately, it was not possible to realize all of them. We scored but after that, we did not take advantage of many moments. Shakhtar answered us with a goal. Of course, we are upset about the result and the things we missed. It is a great experience for us to perform at this level; we progress and improve the quality of game. It is impossible to achieve everything quickly, so we set goals for the future and years, during the last season we have already made some progress. The main objective was to test the team against a stronger opponent, of course, we could do more, but it happened the way it happened. It is most important to play against someone who is stronger than you are, but we did everything we could.

– Did you get your lesson from this group stage of the Champions League?
– Of course, at this stage it is difficult to be surprised about anything, since we played against a stronger opponent. This is a very difficult level, and we didn’t fully made it with some components, we even know which ones. We lacked in terms of implementation, also in such matches there is a question of class, so we understand our mistakes.

– Do you think that with good implementation the match with Shakhtar could have been different?
– Yes, we understand that we have underperformed, and we know that we did it at key moments of the game without realizing our moments. At the same time, we are aware of what tournament we are in and the result of the game. Each match is an opportunity to achieve something new. We are upset with a place in the group, but Celtic are an ambitious club and we will work further to improve our results.

– Will the experience gained in this Champions League draw be useful in the coming seasons?
– Of course, the next season we will try to qualify for the Champions League again. We've learned a lot this season, and we'll use it in the future. It's hard to succeed if you've played in the Champions League just once in five years. In order not to lose this experience, we set the task to qualify for the tournament again. We tested ourselves, we know what we are capable of, we know what it takes of us to progress in the Champions League. This level of responsibility and play requires much more effort and experience.