'˜Celtic were better' - Norwegian press react to the 1-0 win over Rosenborg

Celtic were recognised as being the better team by those in Norway. Picture: OLE MARTIN WOLD/AFP/Getty

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The meeting at a sparsely populated Lerkendal Stadion was the sixth between the sides in the last 17 months, Brendan Rodgers’ men winning on four occasions with two draws.

The win took the Parkhead side into a commanding position in the group with one fixture remaining, something which was noted by Dagbladet: “Celtic can thank Fredrik Gulbrandsen and Salzburg for the good opportunity” to qualify - they require only a point to secure qualification after Sazlburg defeated RB Leipzig.

Rosenborg went into the match capable of qualifying, albeit a proposition which was highly unlikely as was seen with the crowd and general atmosphere. “The Lerkendal audience were not served anything special to warm up by the team in white.”

The same paper bemoaned the defending for the winning goal.

“The match winner’s goal came five minutes before the break. Tore Reginiussen was relaxed and allowed James Forrest’s dribbling to take him down the right side. He hit the back post where there was Sinclair, who was left alone after weak marking from Even Hovland.”

There was a great deal of realism in the aftermath, accompanied by some stark reminders of how poor the European campaign has been for Rosenborg.

Adresseavisen said: “With a loss, Rosenborg delivers its worst group stage ever in Europe. In the Europe League, Norwegian teams have never failed to register at least a point. The lowest score is Tromsø, which in 2013 earned a draw.

“Rosenborg is not in a particularly good company. So far, only Dudelange (Luxembourg) and Akhisar (Turkey) have not taken points in the group stage, as well as RBK.”

“But never before has there been zero points in the home column in a Europe table,” added Aftenposten.

The club’s sporting director Stig Inge Bjørnebye referenced Celtic’s superior resources.

“I would definitely have thought we’d score more points, but we need to look at where we are going to hit the headlines. We play against three teams that translate over one billion each,“ he told VG.

“It is clear that you want results, but you have to be honest with yourself when you meet players who are better than ourselves. We have met three teams that have been better than us, and therefore we have not won a match.”

The press recognised Celtic’s better quality over the two games, Aftenposten stating that “Celtic were constantly in control”.

“For those who saw the group match in Glasgow early this fall the game transpired just as expected: Celtic - especially midfielder Tom Rogic - had a lot of ball while RBK defended low and chased.”

RBK coach Rini Coolen told TV 2: “That was a good result. Celtic were better than us. Initially, we tried to play as compact as possible, and we managed for 35-40 minutes”.

However midfielder Anders Trondsen disagreed with his coach saying that other than the goal Celtic weren’t that much better but they were hamstrung by the fact they “too bad in the last third”.

VG seemed to sum it up neatly: “Rosenborg is best in Norway, but among the worst in Europe.”