'Not how football works' - Ange Postecoglou talks Celtic negativity, mistakes and injury hope after defeat

Ange Postecoglou expressed his frustration at the way his Celtic team played after getting level against RB Leipzig in the Champions League clash in Germany.

The Scottish champions fell behind in the first half before getting back on level terms through Jota after the interval. However, after Leipzig had a goal disallowed, Joe Hart presented the home side with their second goal in a 3-1 win by passing the ball to Dominic Szoboszlai who set up Andre Silva.

Postecoglou shut down a question around Hart apologising to team-mates after, stating "that's not the way football works, mate”. Yet, the Australian felt a mistake was coming due to the manner in which his team were playing after getting level.

"At this level, if you play for survival you never really get anywhere,” he said.

"It's not about the mistake. It's about before then. We had a lot of the ball and we were just passing it back to him for no reason. You are doing what you think is safe but it's not really what we are.

"I just felt it was creeping in before that after we scored we wanted to settle for that and started passing the ball back to him.

"It is about what is the lead-up to the mistake, are we playing our football. Are we showing the same sort of endeavour we were before then?

"I could see it coming, if it wasn't Joe making the mistake it would have been someone else."

Ange Postecoglou embraces Callum McGregor after the Celtic captain's injury. (Photo by Martin Rose/Getty Images)

Celtic were missing a number of key players with Aaron, Mooy, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Carl Starfelt, Liel Abada and David Turnbull all absent, while Callum McGregor went off injured in the 37th minute.

Next up is a Premiership encounter with St Johnstone, early on Saturday afternoon in Perth.

Postecoglou, who admitted McGregor’s injury “doesn’t look good”, believes those returning will help the team reach the levels the team constantly have under the Australian.

"Hopefully we are going to get some players back because we are going to need them,” he said. "Hopefully we get some bodies back and we can maintain our levels of performance.”