Everything Brendan Rodgers said to Sky Sports, following his Celtic side's 1-0 win over Rangers at Ibrox in the Glasgow Derby.
Brendan, well done. How do you sun that one up in the end?
It’s a brilliant win for us. I said to the players before the game that you’ve got to come here and play like a man. Even though we have a very young group, you’ve got to come here with 50-odd thousand against you and you’ve got to come and show that courage. I thought first half we were excellent in our football - it broke down a little bit in the final third of the pitch. Maybe with a fraction of more quality and a bit of finesse in the last pass then we would have finished it off. Second half, you expect them to come out - being at home and under pressure to get a result - but second half we showed that resilience. Three big moments as well where we can finish the game off. I think it becomes tighter because we didn’t take those chances, but so happy for the players. It’s the first big result that they’ve had together. We’ve got half a team virtually not available really. For the new guys to come in and feel what a win like that feels like then it’s a great day for us.
Liam Scales was talking about the difference between the first half and the second half showing that character and resilience. How pleased were you with his performance today?
Yeah, I thought he was outstanding. Liam is a guy who has spent a lot of time out of the club. But what I can rely on is that he is a warrior. I thought when he had to be, he stood up, he won his headers, he defended and was brave. That’s what you have to be at times. First half, our football and our combinations of play was really good and played very, very well and connected the game. Away to a big rival, and any time I've ever won here, you're always going to have periods where you have to defend, and the players were magnificent at that.
Was there any worry when Kemar Roofe thought he had put Rangers ahead, and then obviously the VAR check. From your point of view watching that on first viewing did you think it was a foul, or what did you think?
Yeah, firstly I thought Gus (Lagerbielke) was slow on it, and we needed to work a better angle for him, and that’s why he probably stayed on it a little bit longer. When you see it back, he’s clipped him, and we get the moment to go our way. Up until that moment we were in control, so I would have been really disappointed if we had conceded from that moment. He will learn from that; he is a very young player and he can't dwell on it. He's got to see the pass and get the ball away.
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Kyogo again coming up with a big goal. Just how key is he to your team, even sometimes when he’s not involved – sometimes he is involved all the time – but he always comes up with a big moment. What did you think of this one?
It was a brilliant finish. Firstly, it's something we spoke about with the players – even though when you’re a technical team – you have to be able to do the dirty stuff and it comes from the long ball. Matt O’Riley wins the header, puts him through and it’s a wonderful finish, up against Jack Butland, who is a really good goalkeeper. He had a few one-on-one moments in the first half as well and it looked like he was going to score. There was a moment in the second half, so even when he's not involved he's a threat to the goal. Second half we broke away into the spaces really well, but just lacked that finishing touch and Jack Butland made a great save off of Abada.
How do you gauge where your team are at now, given you’re four games in and it's your first international break? How pleased are you with the start and where do you feel you need to improve?
We’re a long way off where I want us to be – that’s the reality. Hopefully, after the international break, we’ll get some players back, but it's just piecing it all together. We've lost important players and have really important players injured and we have a lot of young players that are finding out what it's like to play for a huge club. Whatever the result was today, we stayed calm and continued to work. Three wins and a draw for the first games in terms of results is very good, but from a performance level, we’ll get better and better.
Alistair Johnston and Greg Taylor coming off there. Are they okay?
Yeah, Ali’s (Johnston) just coming back, he obviously didn’t play all the way through pre-season. We got him 50 to 60 minutes last week and then today he was just tired a little bit. He's a top player, to see him live and to work with him, I was delighted for him. Again, we’re just building his fitness, but the guys who came into the game stood up and were strong. Greg (Taylor) just felt a bit of tightness, so we took him off and put on Alexandro (Bernabei)
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