The Glasgow derby at Celtic Park was, as always, an intense affair, fiercely contested, with both sides having chances throughout the 90 minutes, but come the final whistle, the Hoops had to be content with a point after Jota’s first-half opener was cancelled out by a Fashion Sakala goal after the break.

Speaking after the game, Ange Postecoglou acknowledged the intensity of the game and said he was pleased to see his side remain six points clear at the top of the Premiership table with just three matches remaining.

The Celtic manager said: “I thought it was a pretty tight contest. Once we got in front we had some good chances to get a second and a third, but we didn’t take those chances.

'Obviously it’s a game they had to win so they were going to throw bodies forward and be as direct as they could, and we had to hold on at the end.'

“Joe’s made a couple of outstanding saves and in the end I’m pleased we didn’t get beaten.

“It was that kind of game where, and we’ve spoken about it before, if you are in front at any stage, late in the game they are going to come at us because, for them, they had nothing to lose.

“It’s a game they had to win. We knew that so we knew we’d have to face some pressure, and when they scored they got a bit of confidence from that and we had to hold on.

That’s all part of being a strong team that’s successful – you have to deal with those situations and I thought we did.”

Now the Hoops have a week to prepare for the next challenge – a home game against Hearts next Saturday, May 7 (KO: 12noon).

“We’re in a strong position with three games to go, and we’ve got two home games in those three,” the manager said, “so we’ve just got to recover from this and get ourselves ready for next week.

“It’ll be another good challenge for us and we want to put on a strong performance and get a step closer to what we’ve been after.”

Manager: We knew it would be a tough game but we handled it well