Ange Postecoglou admits Celtic could face a 'painful lesson' as he sets out bold Leverkusen plan

Ange Postecoglou will send out his Celtic team to attack Bayer Leverkusen – even if it ends in a “painful lesson” for his players.

Ange Postecoglou will set Celtic up to attack Leverkusen. (Photo by Rob Casey / SNS Group)

Celtic suffered a chastening 4-0 defeat to the Bundesliga outfit on home soil on September 30 but Postecoglou insists that will not result in a change of approach for the return match in Germany on Thursday night.

Insisting he will not compromise his team’s attacking principals by taking a conservative approach to their latest Europa League group fixture, the Celtic boss said: "We'll only learn from the game if we play our football. You'll learn absolutely nothing if you go out there and shy away from it.

"We can go and be conservative, try and hold on, try and survive, but if we do that we'll learn nothing. All you learn is that you're inferior and you don't believe you can be any better.

"The only way we'll learn anything in this game is if we go out there and take the game to them. That may be a painful lesson for us all but ultimately it's a better way for us to find out.

"It may not be a painful lesson, it may show that we're making a hell of a lot of progress. I'd rather go there and find out about ourselves than just go there and try to survive."

Postecoglou is likely to be selecting from an unchanged group of players after the Hoops boss reported no fresh injury concerns since last Saturday's Premier Sports Cup semi-final win over St Johnstone.

Tom Rogic and Carl Starfelt are close to a return but will not feature in Germany, while Giorgos Giakoumakis is still struggling with a knee problem.

Ange Postecoglou sidesteps Celtic cup final question - 'I have no desire to get involved'

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