ANGE POSTECOGLOU has told his Celtic players that being close to the level required to compete in Europe is not good enough as he reflected on the 5-1 aggregate defeat to Bodo/Glimt that saw his team eliminated from the UEFA Conference League on Thursday night.

Despite the hefty loss over the two legs and Postecoglou’s disappointment with the level of performance shown by his men, the Celtic manager believes that there were key moments in the tie when missed chances cost them any chance of progression.

And he says that if the Celtic players want to reach the next level, they will have to show the ruthless edge that was lacking from their play against the Norwegian champions.

“That’s what I am talking about with levels of performance,” Postecoglou said. “It’s not just we didn’t play well, but in both games we had chances and haven’t tested the keeper.

“That’s what I am talking about. We want these players to get to that level.

“I think that they can, but they’ll only do it if we keep exposing them and keep putting that assertion on them that close enough is not good enough.”

Even with something of a fringe team sent out in the Aspmyra Stadium on Thursday night, Postecoglou pointed out some of the opportunities that were squandered by the likes of Daizen Maeda and in particular, second-half substitute Liel Abada.

“He missed some chances,” he said. “That’s the quality we want them to get to and that’s his challenge because I think he could have had at least a couple of goals in Norway.

“Liel did very well, but I’m hoping he’s disappointed he didn’t score a couple of goals because he has scored in Europe before.”

Meanwhile, Postecoglou gave a pessimistic update on the potential return date for injured striker Kyogo, though there was better news regarding David Turnbull.

“Turnbull is almost back training, but Kyogo is nowhere near it,” he said.