Manager: It was another great effort by the players

Celtic F.C.

·4 maggio 2025

Manager: It was another great effort by the players

Brendan Rodgers was pleased with his side’s performance in the final Glasgow derby of the season as they came back from a goal down to equalise and take a share of the spoils.

It could have been even better if the Hoops had converted their chance deep in added time, but Daizen Maeda was denied by the Rangers goalkeeper.

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However, the Celtic manager praised his players for their efforts at Ibrox.

“I thought a point was the least we deserved,” he told Celtic TV after the game. “We had some good moments in the first half and played through their pressure quite well.

“We had the chance to go 1-0 up which resulted in the corner, and from the corner we got done on the counter-attack.

'But at half-time I just said to the players that we just needed to play the game that we’ve been playing, just keep building the game and moving them side to side.'

"They were playing in a diamond so we needed to keep moving the ball. And I thought we thoroughly deserved to get the result.

“We had a moment at the end where it looked like we were going to win it, but it’s a great effort by the players and we never had too many moments when we were under real pressure.

“I’ve been here before where you maybe have a 10-15 minute spell where you’re really under the cosh and you’ve got to be really strong, but I never felt that we had to defend that way.”

It was Adam Idah who was denied the chance late in the first-half to open the scoring, only for the Hoops to concede the opening goal of the game just moments later.

However, the Irish striker was able to shrug that disappointment off and continue to cause Rangers probelms after the break, culminating in the equaliser just before the hour mark.

“Adam plays for big moments,” said the Celtic manager. “He was obviously disappointed he didn’t score, but he’s always there and I thought in the second half he showed his mentality – really strong and he took the ball in and a wonderful spin and finish for the goal.

“We have one or two players that we have to try and get available for the cup final.

“Cameron Carter-Vickers will probably come out after this game. He needs an injection on a hamstring injury that he’s been having, but the idea now is to get through to the cup final in the best possible place, having players available, keep the performance level going and look to see if we can finish the season off in style.”