ANGE POSTECOGLOU has defended Joe Hart and Carl Starfelt after their errors led to Celtic being given a huge scare before qualifying for the Europa League group stages.

Kyogo Furuhashi had given Celtic an early lead against AZ Alkmaar in The Netherlands to put them three up on aggregate, but a horror mistake from goalkeeper Hart and a calamitous own goal from Starfelt turned the game on its head.

Despite some severe pressure from the hosts at times, Celtic hung on to claim their place in tomorrow’s group stage draw, and Postecoglou says the way both players recovered was more important than their slip-ups on the night.

“They were two pretty horrible errors but I guess that’s what happens,” Postecoglou said. “They are two human beings, they are going to make mistakes.

“What was more important for me was what we did after and how we reacted.

“We lost our way a bit in the first half trying to recover from that and they got momentum.

“We started the game well, we scored the goal and started playing really brightly. But the two goals set us back. The second half we dug in when we had to.

“Joe was obviously disappointed with the first half mistake. But he made a couple of outstanding saves. Carl defended really strongly in the second half.

“Mistakes are a part of football, it’s the reaction to them that’s important. Both of those players recovered from those errors and went on to contribute to our victory.

“We’ll keep working on things. I’ve already said we’re not the finished product – we can’t be at this stage. You need to keep things in perspective: it’s been a massive month for us and we have yet another big game on Sunday.

“It’s been an extraordinary four weeks when you think about what we’ve done in that period of time.”