Right, let’s consider that Celtic creating chances against a superior Real Madrid is some sort of achievement, and tbh I don’t even pretend I expected Celtic to get anything from those two games.
Now since you mention context, you seem to ignore or forget that Celtic got only two points in four games against Leipzig and Shakhtar. I don’t know if that’s impressive to you, but to me it isn’t. Rangers’ EL campaign when they reached the final is more impressive than Celtic’s UCL campaign.
It’s funny because a couple of years ago when we were linked with ten Hag, some people here (you know who you are) had doubts over ETH’s ability to manage outside Netherlands, farmers league and all that, but when people pointed at Ajax’s impressive run in the Champions League (and THAT was impressive), they were rather quick to dismiss it. But now they’re embracing a good 60 mins against Real Madrid as argument that another manager can hack it outside a farmers league.
I think it's fair to say that Celtic's UCL campaign was a massive disappointment. I don't think anybody would say that 2 points from the group is any sort of achievement.
With that out of the way, where the context comes in is that those results were chiefly down to two things: failing to take chances created and being too open defensively, especially on the counter against teams who can punish you.
Celtic created more chances than PSG did during the group stage of that competition. That's a fact. They also failed to convert hardly any of those chances, which whilst in part can be put down to luck, is mainly down to the quality of player Postecoglou had at his disposal.
Defensively, they were too often exposed, which I think is a combination of Ange's system and again, the players at his disposal.
With regards to Rangers reaching the EL final, Celtic actually had more group stage points than Rangers in that competition, but missed out on progressing by virtue of finishing 3rd in a tougher, more competitive group. Who's to say that if they'd been drawn in Ranger's soft-touch group of babies, they wouldn't have gone on a similar run? But that's obviously speculation and neither here not there.
Incidentally, Ange's World Cup with Australia followed a similar pattern to his UCL with Celtic. Drawn in a rough group with Spain, Holland and Bielsa's Chile, they acquitted themselves really well in terms of performance, but ultimately finished bottom of the group. Expected, yet disappointing given the football they played.
So I think what he's consistently shown is that he can coach a team of players to compete with better opposition, but whether down to the players available to him or flaws inherent in his system, hasn't been able to make the impact he's flirted with, unlike say an ETH at Ajax.
Player quality has played a big part previously, which is one reason why it's going to be fascinating to see whether Ange can turn those promising performances against superior opposition into consistent wins now that he's working with a higher quality of player himself. Let's hope that's the case, starting today.
