‘We were well off it’ - Ange Postecoglou makes Celtic admission after Sydney Cup upset

Ange Postecoglou admits his Celtic fringe players could have no excuses for their below-par display as the Australian boss began his homecoming tour with a shock 2-1 defeat against Sydney in their opening Super Cup clash.

The Scottish champions carried plenty of momentum into the friendly tournament Down Under having entered the World Cup break on the back of eight consecutive Premiership wins to open a nine-point gap over Rangers at the top of the table.

A much-changed Hoops line-up containing several players who have barely featured so far this season, including deadline day recruit Oliver Abildgaard and Yosuke Ideguchi, were determined to continue that positive run of form against the mid-table A-League side and they took the lead after 23 minutes through Kyogo Furuhashi at the Allianz Stadium.

However, Slovakian winger Robert Mak levelled the match just three minutes later after shrugging off Stephen Welsh before side-footing into the bottom corner of the net. Celtic were then hit on the counter attack when Max Burgess curled home a stunning left-foot effort to turn the game on its head after the break.

Despite the match being just a friendly, a frustrated Postecoglou was still far from pleased with his side’s performance and challenged them to bounce back against Premier League side Everton on Sunday.

He told CelticTV: “It was fair to say that we were nowhere near the level we need to be. It was an entertaining game and there was plenty of goalmouth action for both teams, but we were well off it today.

“To Sydney’s credit I thought they were the better team in the first half and they deserved to win. We were well off irrespective of whether it’s players who have or haven’t been playing. We were nowhere near where we need to be.

“In football if you are not then you don’t get the outcome you need. We will recover from this and get ready for Sunday. We will have a session on Saturday and prepare as we always go. We will make sure we are in the right mindset to be successful.

“(The support) was brilliant as always. Whether it’s back home or around the world, our supporters are passionate about the football club and they always make a great atmosphere. Unfortunately we couldn’t reward them tonight but hopefully we can on Sunday.”