Ange Postecoglou notched his first win in the Europa League as Celtic eased to an impressive 2-0 win over Ferencvaros in Glasgow this morning.
Celtic had lost their opening two games in the Europa League – a 4-3 rollercoaster against Real Betis before being thumped 4-0 by Bayer Leverkusen.
That result had ratcheted up the pressure on trailblazing Australian coach Postecoglou, with Celtic also making a sluggish start to their Scottish Premiership campaign.
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But the jubilant fist pumps told the story for Postecoglou as Kyogo Furuhashi’s clinical strike and a late Ferencvaros own goal ignited a bumper crowd of around 50,000.
Victory lifted Celtic to third in Group G and the ‘Hoops’ are also up to fourth in the Scottish Premiership thanks to wins over Aberdeen and Motherwell.
“A very convincing win,” Mark Bosnich said on Stan Sport’s Champions League coverage this morning.
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“Could have been more. Joe Hart did make an important save at a very, very important time but they’re getting better and better and the score didn’t really tell the story.
“Kyogo’s been absolutely fantastic. (Callum) McGregor missed a penalty as well – it was a convincing win.”
Bosnich said the three game winning streak had been coming if you had been following Celtic’s progress closely.
“The data and the stats were good – which doesn’t always tell all the story, good or bad.
“But watching the games we thought it told a good story and it was just the simple things that were letting them down, in both boxes… He (Postecoglou) always starts a little bit slow at the clubs that he’s at.
“He was under a lot of pressure before the international break, won the game against Aberdeen, won at the weekend against Motherwell.
“He’s got St Johnstone this week and… from an Australian coach’s perspective – and Ange’s perspective as well – it’s important that he does do well.
“And especially with the style of football as well, because Australians have never been looked upon, in the football world, as being particularly stylish.
“And we need to start changing that perception.”
Former Socceroos captain Craig Foster stressed how massive Postecoglou’s progress was for the Australian game.
“He’s our first coach at this level of the game so it’s incredibly important that he does well,” Foster said on Stan Sport.
“Because it has a massive impact. It has an impact on aspiring young coaches, of course, but also just the way that Australian coaches are viewed in Europe and elsewhere around the world. So everyone is riding him hard, basically.
“The last couple of weeks has been excellent. But on Stan Sport FC we looked at the expected goals and it shows very obviously that the team was already in the top three teams in the league.”
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Postecoglou was naturally delighted after the victory over the Budapest club.
“We’re never going to be a team that tries to slow things down or just take control for the sake of it,” Postecoglou said.
“We want to be relentless and we want the opposition to know we’re going to keep going to the final whistle irrespective of the score, and I think there are good signs that that stuff is slowly coming along.”