Celts In Forward Gear

- Mark Henderson

NOTHING is gained in football by looking back in anger. What’s happened can’t be undone and, regardless of any sense of injustice or misfortune, a prolonged post-mortem is a waste of time and energy.

The only way to achieve redemption is by learning lessons from mistakes and focusing on the future. This is why Jozo Simunovic is positive, motivated and looking forward, despite Celtic’s recent UEFA Champions League disappointment.

Like the whole of the Celtic family, the 24-year-old was hurting heavily in the aftermath of last week’s narrow loss to AEK Athens, which extinguished the Hoops’ hopes of reaching the group stages of the competition for the third year running.

‘We’ll have to go and win, take every chance and stay together, and if we play well then we know the fans will be behind us’

Once the defender reported back for duty at Lennoxtown, however, he knew it was time to move on. In football, there’s always another challenge on the horizon, and the Scottish champions can still pursue European football until at least Christmas via the Europa League should they negotiate FK Suduva in the play-offs over the coming eight days.

“That’s the most important thing,” said Simunovic in an exclusive interview with the Celtic View. “It’s not a nice feeling when you drop out and lose the chance to play in the Champions League, but we have to learn from that and be better. We have two more games and we have towin both of them and play in the Europa League.