Ange Postecoglou sends special Celtic message to Jenz and Welsh as Champions League coming of age beckons

Ange Postecoglou has told his Celtic young guns not to let a big Champions League opportunity pass them by. And the Parkhead boss is backing stand-in stoppers Moritz Jenz and Stephen Welsh to lay the platform for a huge display against RB Leipzig.

Postecoglou and his team hit the halfway mark in Group F and a first section success could catapult them into a strong position to progress. Although the manager knows it’s about growing game-on-game and relative success at this high level can’t just be instantly achieved, he’s also big on not wasting openings.

Postecoglou believes in his team grasping chances when they come along and, while many of the team are new to the arena of Europe’s elite, it’s not a barrier to their aspirations. The manager said: “It’s great. It’s how you can develop quickly. Nothing beats that kind of experience, provided you go out there with a positive mindset and don’t let the game pass you by.

“It goes for a lot of our players. For most of them, it is their first experience of Champions League football. We are really big on making sure they don’t waste the experience and let it pass them by without making an impact. That’s what football is about. Every game is a challenge. It’s about keeping on performing at this level and if you keep performing you give yourself a chance to win games.

“All you can do is be prepared to take on the challenge ahead. Our first two games have been pretty good from a performance perspective. We felt in the first game we did well for about an hour then fell away. The second game, our performance was strong. It was a game we could have won. It’s not just about performance, it’s about the opposition as well.

“There’s a bit more to it than just converting chances. This