Ange Postecoglou urges Celtic's young backline to seize their opportunity as he admits to anxiety over defence

If the same poll was conducted immediately following Saturday’s 6-2 drubbing at the hands of West Ham in a Celtic Park friendly, anxiety would probably be the prevailing emotion.

Much of that apprehension centres around their goalkeeper and young defence, who were torn apart by the English Premier League side at will. They won’t be asked to keep out the same level of opposition in Denmark tonight, but right now, most Celtic fans are doubting their ability to keep weans out of a close.

Ange Postecoglou admits that his own emotions are swinging wildly between those two states, with his excitement for the players getting their opportunity to fulfil their dreams tempered by his anxiety over how they will handle it.

“Bit of both,” Postecoglou said. “I’m excited for them as that’s what they probably all dreamt about when they were 10 years old was to play for Celtic in a big Champions League game.

“You are also anxious as you want to make sure you give them the best possible preparation for it and that falls on me more on them.

“But I’m looking forward to seeing how they perform and I’ve no doubts they’ll acquit themselves well.”

Postecoglou feels that particular angle to the current defensive scenario at the club, the one of the chance it presents young players like Dane Murray, Stephen Welsh and Tony Ralston, is being overlooked as the bunfight of blame goes on around how Celtic arrived at these games with such an inexperienced backline.

“That’s a good point,” he said. “It’s something people haven’t highlighted as much.

“We are in a state of transition and we’ve thrown young kids in and some inexperienced players are getting opportunities, but what a tremendous opportunity.

“You can’t pick and choose when to make a debut. You can’t pick and choose when your career starts.

“If you can perform on the biggest of stages when that opportunity arises and this is a fantastic one for our players, why not take it and create something memorable?

“You can always grasp for excuses and reasons why you can’t do something, but there’s an opportunity to do something special and it falls on the players who are available. There’s no reason why they can’t take that.

“You talk to any footballer who has had a great career and talk to them about their debut and I guarantee with every single one of them it wasn’t planned or programmed. It just fell upon them.

“What the ones who have great careers do is take that opportunity, irrespective of what the venue is or the circumstances of the game.

“Obviously, we’ve got some young players and there’s no better way for them to stamp their mark on this club or for their careers to perform in a big game like that.”

As for the man behind them, Vasilis Barkas is hardly exuding the sort of confidence that would help to settle the young backline. Postecoglou remains supportive of his keeper, and is likely to start him again tonight ahead of Scott Bain, but his position as first-choice is far from settled.

“Apart from the first leg, we’ve done it consistently through pre-season where Bainy and Barky have shared the duties,” he said.

“I don’t think anyone is number one. They are competing for spots and everyone is available. I’ll see how everyone trains and select a team from there.

“In terms of Bainy, he’s been very good in training and games. I made a call to play Barky in the first game and I’ll make a call on the second game after training.”

It is at the other end of the pitch that Celtic will be more confident of impacting this tie, and Postecoglou feels that his big players like Odsonne Edouard look primed to make a telling contribution.

“Odsonne has been really good for us,” he said. “He’s working hard. He’s not got a goal yet, but he’s been in great areas and been a bit unlucky.

“I thought he was enormous in the first leg, so the stage is there for someone like him and we also have big-game players like Callum McGregor, Ryan Christie, David Turnbull since I’ve been here.

“The key is to play as a team and support one another. Put in a strong shift as a group and within that I’m sure individuals will shine.”

Albian Ajeti is fit to help out in attack if required, which is handy when you consider that Leigh Griffiths didn’t make the trip at all.

A minor calf injury sustained in training in Glasgow has ruled the forward out, but he has the rather more pressing issue of the Celtic fans turning on him in large numbers during Saturday’s match following his latest off-field controversy. Had that mixed reception affected Griffiths?

“I’m not really sure, I didn’t speak to him about that,” Postecoglou said.

“He picked up a slight injury [on Monday] at training, which was disappointing for him as he was obviously going to be part of the travelling party.

“In terms of the crowd response, I think Leigh is in the same position as all of us.

“We go there to represent the football club, and the supporters are there to judge us on how we perform and what we do. We have to accept any response we get from that.

“For the most part, I think Leigh still got a positive response from the crowd, because they acknowledge the fact that he has had a very good career at Celtic and he has contributed.

“If there are people who express dissatisfaction, then it is up to him to show with his performances and the way he goes about things, and I’m sure he can win them back very quickly.”

Meanwhile, new signing Carl Starfelt could be available for Saturday's Premiership opener against Hearts at Tynecastle, with the Swedish international set to check in at Lennoxtown at last. Kyogo Furuhashi should then be available for the following week's match at home to Dundee.

“I understand Carl has started some individual training, so we’re hoping he’ll join us at Lennoxtown by the time we get back into Scotland, and we’ll see what his condition is like then," Postecoglou said.

“But he should be available by the weekend.”