Rodgers pleased with Celtic’s title focus

News Hour:


Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers praised his players for showing the determination needed to dig out a 2-1 victory against Dundee that puts them on the verge of the Scottish Premiership title, reports BSS.

A first half strike from Jozo Simunovic and a second half header from Stuart Armstrong seemed to have the Hoops cruising to victory at Dens Park.

However, a superb strike from substitute Faissal El Bakhtaoui gave Dundee hope and made for an exciting finish on Sunday.

The Glasgow giants were put on the back foot as Dundee pressed for an equaliser and were forced to take off winger Scott Sinclair and bring on centre-half Erik Sviatchenko to help defend their lead.

Celtic withstood the late pressure and Rodgers was happy to see his players show a different side to their game as they extended their unbeaten domestic run to 36 games.

“I thought we showed a lot of different elements to our game today,” Rodgers said.

“We played some good football at times and had good control of the game. We never created too much in the first half but we still deserved to be in front.

“In the second half we scored a great goal. It was perfect in terms of the build-up play and construction.

“I just felt that after that we had some more chances to close the game out and we probably just lost our positioning a little bit in order to keep the ball.

“Obviously at 2-1 we had to show a different side because it was quite direct from Dundee. So, we had to defend the box, we had to compete, we had to win our headers and win second balls, and the players did that.

“It was a very good victory for us. Parts of the game were very good but other parts we had to show fight and a strong mentality. It was an important three points.”

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