Brendan Rodgers dismissed a European hangover as an excuse for Celtic’s surprising 2-1 defeat against Hibs at Easter Road…
The Hoops fell to their second league defeat this season on Saturday lunchtime with the Hibees extending their impressive unbeaten run in the Scottish Premiership to 11 games.
Josh Campbell’s first half brace meant the hosts were 2-0 up at the interval and despite Daizen Maeda pulling one back for the Scottish champions in the second half, David Gray’s side held onto a memorable victory in Leith.
READ THIS…Philippe Clement sacked – Brendan Rodgers sees off yet another Rangers manager
No excuses from Brendan Rodgers
Speaking to Premier Sports post-match, Rodgers as well as criticising Alan Muir on VAR for controversially disallowing what looked like a perfectly fine Daizen Maeda equaliser, did not use Celtic’s midweek battling performance in Munich as an excuse for dropped points.
“No, it’s not an excuse,” Rodgers said. “We’ve dealt well with it all season.”
“This [Easter Road] is always a tough place to come, but that’s not an excuse.”
Brendan Rodgers is “hugely disappointed” with the decision to disallow Celtic’s goal today that would have made it 2-2 against Hibernian 🍀
“My experience here with VAR is that they don’t have all the angles or equipment to say it’s conclusively out.” 🗣️#HIBCEL pic.twitter.com/P4SIiTEcm9
— Premier Sports (@PremSportsTV) February 22, 2025
Although Celtic suffered a second league defeat of 2025, one more loss than they managed during the entirety of their 2024 league exploits, Rodgers’ men remain 13 points clear at the top of the table following theRangers losing 2-0 at home to St Mirren at Ibrox on Saturday afternoon which spelled the end for Philippe Clement time at the latest Ibrox club.
Barry Ferguson is now the strong bookies favourite to replace the Belgian Waffler – who said that the Banter Years were over?
READ THIS…Former Celtic striker Chris Sutton on Philippe Clement’s sacking
Celtic’s attention now turns to Aberdeen
Celtic now turn their attention to Aberdeen on Tuesday night in Glasgow’s east end where they will aim to regain consistency on the domestic front ahead of the title run in. A win will see Celtic increase the lead over theRangers who play on Wednesday night down at Rugby Park against Kilmarnock, that’s never an easy place to visit.
It’s going to be an interesting week.
Conor Spence
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