Brendan Rodgers delivers honest verdict on Celtic Champions League stalemate with Dinamo Zagreb
Despite dominating possession, the Irishman’s side couldn’t carve a way through a resolute home outfit despite Adam Idah and Nicolas Kuhn coming closest to breaking the deadlock.
Marko Pjaca nearly won it late on for the hosts and was denied in superb fashion by Kasper Schmeichel with ten minutes to go, but both Celtic and Dinamo Zagreb settled for a point on an uneventful matchday six night.
Defences were on top, leaving the Bhoys on nine Champions League points heading into their final two clashes against Young Boys and Aston Villa.
Now, Brendan Rodgers has reacted to what he saw during an evening where his side can take positives and areas to work on.
Speaking to TNT Sports, Rodgers admitted his side didn’t do enough to force the issue and felt frustrated at their work in the final third, albeit he appreciated his side gave everything to claim a result.
He explained: “From a defensive perspective, we were solid and we were strong. Probably both teams if I’m honest, the quality wasn’t very good. Certainly to our level We had a couple of wee moments, a couple of opportunities, but when we arrived there we just didn’t quite make the right pass, the right cross.
To be fair, they defended one moment really, really well when we had a move, Arne crosses it and the defender does great. Apart from that, it wasn’t so good around the final third. We had a lot of the ball, good domination in the game, comfortable which is always a great sign for us, it’s just that extra little bit.
“That aside, it’s a point away from home. Another point, nine point after six games and it sets us up perfectly for our final game at home (vs Young Boys).”
He then remarked, “It was quality, we lacked a wee bit of quality,” in reference to the pitch and lack of innovation. The surface was a little bit tricky; I must admit that it was a little lumpy and didn’t have the desired slickness. From the first whistle, we gave it our all, but we needed that little something.
“That’s the really pleasing aspect, we’re coming away from home and having confidence in how we can defend as a team, you seen that, the effort, the commitment of the players was absolutely fantastic,” the player concluded when discussing maintaining a clean sheet.
However, we didn’t open them up as much as we would have liked, as I mentioned. We could have simply failed with that pass, but we had fantastic chances. In my opinion, we needed to keep up the onslaught a bit longer in the last third. The players gave it their all aside from that.
“We made the adjustments to maintain the game’s intensity, but we lost those few crucial moments of quality as soon as we got there.”
Although Celtic didn’t do enough to win that evening, they could still use the point to gauge their chances of defeating Young Boys in January.
Tonight has both advantages and disadvantages, with certain areas undoubtedly in need of improvement. When all is said and done, however, this will not be considered a negative outcome.
