Brendan Rodgers hails Celtic reponse after first-half 'waste' and salutes defender's bravery

A proud Brendan Rodgers praised Celtic’s mentality after his team put Cameron Carter-Vickers’ first-half own goal behind them to earn a point against Club Brugge.

Brendan Rodgers applauds fans after the 1-1 draw with Club Brugge (Photo by Rob Casey / SNS Group)

It leaves the Scottish champions on the eight-point mark for the Champions League with three games left. They remain short of the ten-point target that is reckoned to guarantee teams a spot in the knockout phase play-off round, though Celtic’s ambitions might still be higher.

Rodgers was satisfied with the point secured here, with Daizen Maeda capping a fine performance with a goal on the hour mark. The manager refused to pin any blame on Carter-Vickers, who performed admirably before and after his aberration in the 26th minute. The defender turned and passed blindly back to ‘keeper Kasper Schmeichel and then watched in horror as the ball trundled into the goal.

“It was just one of those unfortunate things,” said Rodgers. “He's played that pass a million times and it's gone back and then we've been able to play forward. It's just one of those unfortunate moments in the game that happen to you. He's a really, really tough character. He's a great guy. He picked himself up.

“He was really strong and aggressive again in the game and got on with it and had a real bravery in the second half because he was the one carrying the ball forward for us to start the attacks.”

Rodgers described the match as “a game of two halves” and looked forward to upcoming games against Dinamo Zagreb, Aston Villa and Young Boys. The Swiss side are the opponents in Celtic’s last home match and were beaten 6-1 at home by Atalanta on Tuesday.

“We'd all love to get it tonight, wouldn't we?” he said, with reference to the ten-point target. “But unfortunately, we're playing against a really, really good team and the players take a point. I thought they showed great courage in the second half because, like I said, we weren't at our level in the first half.

“Sometimes a game like that can get away from you, but it didn't,” he added. “We stayed with it, showed that determination, showed that mentality, never to quit, to keep going. And then we were much, much better and much freer in the second half.

“We're on eight points, nine to play for. We can still get to very much on course to get to where we want to get to. And, yes, still three games to go. Tonight was always going to be a really, really dangerous game because on the back of the Leipzig and Atalanta results, people will look at Club Brugge and think we should definitely win that. But this is a team that's more experienced than us at this level.

“Clearly, we would want to have played like we did against Leipzig and take three points and enjoy the performance level. But we're playing against a good team tonight who are well organised, good technicians. And if you waste 45 minutes like we did in the first half, then they can punish you, which they did do. But I can only credit the players for the second half because we have to fight at this level.

“We pushed Daizen up higher to press on the centre-half and brought Reo back in to mark the midfield player, the controlling player, and then released our left back up to press their full-back. So just swinging and tilting the press a wee bit. And from that, they (Brugge) didn't get out so much, so it was pleasing they took that on board.”