BRENDAN RODGERS was proud of his players last night as the successfully defended their 3-1 lead from the first leg of the second round Champions League qualifier to progress to the 3rd round where they will play AEK Athens.
The first round of that tie will be on played next Wednesday night and Rodgers will be looking to build up an other decent advantage to take to Athens 6 days later – see HERE.
Before the Celtic v AEK Athens match kicks off, both sides will know who awaits the winner of the tie in the final play-off round, as the draw for the takes place on Monday. More on that shortly.
One player who will be fine for next week – and Celtic will have plenty of returning players for this tie compared to last night – is Kieran Tierney. As the ONLY left back at the club at the moment, an injury to him could be critical so when he went off with 10 minutes remaining the entire support was concerned.
However Brendan Rodgers revealed after the game that it was just a bit of cramp and KT should be fine for next week. Here’s a little of what Brendan was saying, as reported by the club on social media last night.
???? BR: “We won the tie last week with a great attacking performance and defending well. Tonight was about being solid and keeping the cleansheet.” #RBKCEL
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) August 1, 2018
???? BR: “Tonight was a great demonstration that you can’t always play perfect football, especially in Europe. When you’re under pressure, questions are asked about your resilience and I thought we stood up to that very well.” #RBKCEL
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) August 1, 2018
???? BR: “We couldn’t quite build the game as much as we’d have liked. Very pleased with how we defended with that resilience and mentality.” #RBKCEL
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) August 1, 2018
???? Brendan Rodgers speaking after #RBKCEL:
“Different type of game to last week. Thought Rosenborg played very well in the first half. They needed to come out and take the initiative and I thought they played well.” #UCL pic.twitter.com/IjcBLTkl3t
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) August 1, 2018
???? BR on @kierantierney1: “Bit of cramp. Probably could’ve played on but we just wanted to make sure we would close out the game with fully fit players but he should be fine.”
More from the manager soon. #RBKCEL
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) August 1, 2018
