Celtic's Ange Postecoglou details what's required to cure team's away-game ills come Seville Europa League opener

A real sense of anticipation has been raised over the fact Celtic’s Europa League curtain-raiser on Thursday returns them to Seville - the city that played host to the club’s memorable, if unsuccessful, 2003 UEFA Cup final.
Celtic manager Ange Postecoglu salutes the club's support following tSaturday's 3-0 win over Ross County that brought a sixth straight home win - a run that contrast with four defeats in five on the road as his team head into Thursday's Europa League opener away to Real Betis.(Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group)Celtic manager Ange Postecoglu salutes the club's support following tSaturday's 3-0 win over Ross County that brought a sixth straight home win - a run that contrast with four defeats in five on the road as his team head into Thursday's Europa League opener away to Real Betis.(Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group)
Celtic manager Ange Postecoglu salutes the club's support following tSaturday's 3-0 win over Ross County that brought a sixth straight home win - a run that contrast with four defeats in five on the road as his team head into Thursday's Europa League opener away to Real Betis.(Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group)

The reality, though, is the Real Betis group opener being staged anywhere but the east end of Glasgow should be a source of anxiety for Ange Postecoglou’s men. The contrast between Celtic at home and on the road has been acute under the Australian. While his team have snared six victories and a draw in their own environs, they have lost four of their five away games. The reverses against Midtjylland, Hearts, AZ Alkmaar - a loss that still banked the club Europa League group stage football - and Rangers speak of certain deficiencies Postecoglou acknowledges must be tackled. But not shortcomings that demand major rethinks.

“You need to address the fact of what we haven’t done in those games,” the 56-year-old said. “When I look at the first games we had, we had some good performances away, but there were disappointing elements in them, especially in Midtjylland. The flip side is that we lost all those games by a single goal. The frustrating thing for me was that we had enough good opportunities to win them.

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"I think that is maybe what we have to address but I don’t think we have to change the way we play, or change our approach. We had moments in those games where we should have capitalised and didn’t and then we allowed the opposition to take advantage of that. That is part of the next phase of our development as a team: we want to play good football and be a dominant team but in big games, and in tight games away from home, when the moments arise we take them.

“The reward for us getting through the Europa qualifiers is to be involved in special European nights. If you look at our group [with Real Betis, Bayer Leverkusen and Ferencvaros], we are going to have some fantastic fixtures home and away and I can’t wait to be involved in them. More importantly, we hope to create more special memories people will talk about in the future when they talk about the great European nights with this club.”

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