CELTIC wrapped up their pre-season tour with a 4-2 win over Czech outfit Bank Ostrava.
Ange Postecoglou's side fell behind early on but they responded well as goals from Kyogo Furuhashi, Matt O'Riley and Giorgos Giakoumakis turned the game in their favour.
Banik Ostrava - who were celebrating their centenary at a packed-out Municipal Stadium - threatened a comeback when they pulled one back midway through the second half before Liel Abada restored Celtic's two-goal lead a few minutes later.
Here are three talking points from the friendly outing.
Hart-in-mouth moments
The Celtic goalkeeper has never been shy when deciding to come off his line but still, there were moments during this contest where he appeared to be playing a very dangerous game indeed.
It wasn’t uncommon to see the shot-stopper pushing 50 or 60 yards up the park to support the defence during build-up phases of play and while the former England internationalist effectively gave his side an extra man in possession, it was a high-risk, high-reward strategy.
A loose pass from Jota early on left Hart stranded in no man’s land and Celtic were fortunate that Banik Ostrava were unable to capitalise on the opportunity as they had a pop from the halfway line. Hart was forced into hurriedly scurrying back to his goal on a few occasions throughout the game, and better sides will be able to take advantage.
It’s a brave ploy from Postecoglou, and one that has clear benefits. But if the Celtic boss perseveres with it, it could lead to a few soft goals being shipped over the course of the season. The champions will be hoping that the benefits outweigh the costs.
Forrest stakes his claim
There are some Celtic fans who will have raised an eyebrow when James Forrest signed a three-year contract extension this summer but the 31-year-old demonstrated his value to the team in this pre-season win.
The winger’s run in behind for the first goal carved open the Banik Ostrava defence and the Scotland internationalist showed good awareness to cut the ball back to Kyogo Furuhashi for a tap-in to level the scores on 14 minutes.
Forrest was brought off at the break but looked lively during this pre-season cameo, and his performance suggested that he can still have a telling impact in Ange Postecoglou’s side.
O’Riley the real deal
Another who only played the first half in the Czech Republic, O’Riley was the best player on the park at the Municipal Stadium. The central midfielder played an important role in Forrest’s equaliser and lashed in a beauty from 25 yards, but it was perhaps his all-round play that impressed the most.
The former Fulham and MK Dons man showed off his range of passing and vision in an impressive 45-minute showing, while his neat footwork often left his opponents bamboozled.
O’Riley enjoyed a flying start at Celtic after arriving midway through last season but it is hard to shake the feeling that the best is still to come from the Denmark Under-21 internationalist. With a full pre-season under his belt and a greater understanding of his role in Postecoglou’s system, the 21-year-old looks set for a big campaign at Parkhead.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here