ANGE POSTECOGLOU has told his Celtic players they have to defeat Ferencvaros today if they are to have any hope of reaching the knockout stages of the Europa League.

Defeats to Real Betis and Bayer Leverkusen in their opening two group stage matches have left Celtic playing catch-up already, and Postecoglou is under no illusions that anything less than three points will mean a fight with today’s opponents for third place and the consolation of a spot in the UEFA Conference League.

The Celtic manager believes that his men can learn from their two matches in the competition proper so far though and get the better of Ferencvaros to stay in touch with the group leaders.

“There’s no doubt about it, we need a result if we want to keep our hopes alive,” Postecoglou said.

“The other two in the group have already won a couple of games, so we kind of understand that particularly at home here we need to get three points tomorrow. There’s no shying away from that and it’s a good challenge for us.

“I think the two European games so far have shown that we can play good football and have an impact against the best teams, but we also have seen that we’ll get punished for our mistakes and any lapses in concentration.

“That’s part of the process for this team to keep evolving, but I think there’s enough in those two games to encourage us to continue to try and be an aggressive team, particularly here at home, and take it to the opposition.

“That’s our challenge tomorrow, to try and perform as we have in the other two games from an attacking perspective, but also really be on it as a team for the whole 90 minutes, or else we’ll get punished against good quality.”