After his Celtics’ thrilling late-night victory against Ross County 2-1 in Dingwall yesterday, Brendan Rodgers complimented the players’ genuine grit. The winners had to fight hard to defeat methodical and tenacious opponents who had seized the lead just before halftime after two penalty kicks that were disrupted by video assistant referees.
A right-wing cross was deflected by Liam Scales, but referee Kevin Clancy missed the handball. Nick Walsh, the technical assistant, timed the reckless and illogical response from the Republic of Ireland international.
Ronan Hale’s effort was deflected by Kasper Schmeichel, who dove to his right to stop it, but the Irishman, a self-described Hoops supporter, was given another chance and this time he scored.
After six straight clean sheets, it was the first time the Danish veteran had been required to fish the ball out of his goal in a league match. But after the break, a determined group of visiting players got back together and tried again. Shortly after the hour, they introduced four friendly substitutes and completely changed the course of the game.
The equalizer came in the 76th minute when Alistair Johnston used his right thigh to deflect a shot from Callum McGregor past Ross Laidlaw. Twelve minutes later, Kuhn scored the game-winning goal with a low curl into the net after racing onto a brilliant through pass from Johnston.
The visiting supporters were ecstatic once more. We’ve had a very busy time, remarked a relieved Rodgers. We’ll improve from our seven games in twenty-three days, of which we’ve won six. Unfortunately, we were defeated by the Champions League champions.
But I can go back and look and think what a tremendous start the players have made this season, we’ve got 38 finals, and that’s our seventh final, and we’ve won it. ”I remarked last week that in addition to being a pretty talented football team, we also have a real resilience.And in the second half, I believe we had to demonstrate that.
We were too slow, the game was meaningless, we controlled the ball, but there wasn’t enough penetration in the first half.
There wasn’t enough movement and we weren’t really doing anything in the game. Obviously, we gave away the penalty, so Ross County were given something to hang on to.
“But, the second-half was much more what we wanted to see and we thoroughly deserved the win.”
The Hoops gaffer, speaking to Celtic TV, continued: “We weren’t running enough and too slow on the ball. We play with a touch-pass tempo, but we were having too many touches before passing it.
So, that slowed our game down and then obviously those runs off the ball, we weren’t making those sacrificial runs.
We looked like we were looking for an easy game – and that’s not what this team is about.”
Rodgers added: “In the second-half, especially with the introduction of the new players coming in, we got real good energy in the game, started to run more, started moving more and then our quality paid off in the end.
Well, we already knew that. Having that bench and the ability to ramp up the intensity is crucial for us when playing as many games as we do. “The men that entered were great, but that has happened to us before in past games.
Similar to St Johnstone, we’ve had games where the lads enter and change the course of the match. “We’ve won fantastically. Here at home, Ross County has shown to be a difficult squad to defeat. Thus, it’s very, really fantastic.
Now that the international break is over, Celtic can relax. Their next match is against Aberdeen, who have also won all seven of their league games, on Saturday of next week.
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