Ange Postecoglou felt his attacking approach paid dividends as Celtic secured European football beyond Christmas with a 3-2 victory over Ferencvaros in Budapest.
Celtic deserved the win on the balance of play and put themselves one point behind second-placed Real Betis with two games left in Group G.
Their six-point lead and double triumph over the Hungarians will ensure they drop down to the Europa Conference League at worst.
But they will hope to give themselves a chance of staying in the tournament when they host the Spaniards in the final game.
To do that they might need a positive result against Bayer Leverkusen in Germany but they are sure to make a game of it after taking their goal tally on the road in Europa League to 11 in four matches.
“Our objective was to get three points and keep us alive in the group,” Postecoglou told BT Sport.
“It’s all credit to the players, I thought we played really well and scored three great goals and could have had more.”
The home side briefly levelled through an unfortunate Josip Juranovic own goal before pulling a goal back with four minutes left.
Postecoglou said: “I’m disappointed we conceded a second goal because I don’t think it was a true reflection of how we played.
“I don’t think it was nervy. The fact we can get three goals away from home is because we will just go at teams.
“I still think that’s the way forwards for us – the kind of team we want to be and the kind of team our supporters want us to be.”
Postecoglou’s starting front three – Kyogo Furuhashi, Jota and Liel Abada – were all on target.
“They were great,” the Celtic manager said. “We set a platform for them. You can’t discount the fact that our ability to play out from the back gives them opportunities rather than just hitting it long.
“They work awfully hard for the team in a defensive sense and they will get their rewards. It’s great for all three to get goals and three quality goals too.”
