Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
HOPES TURN TSAR
Rodgers blasts Hoops flops
BRENDAN RODGERS confessed Celtic lacked belief and courage as they crashed out of the Europe League in Russia last night.
The Parkhead manager made no attempt to disguise his disappointment at the manner of the loss as his team were thumped 3-0 by Zenit St Petersburg and eliminated at the last 32 stage of the tournament.
Weak defending cost Celtic dearly as their 1-0 first leg lead was wiped out after just seven minutes on the way to an exit in Russia.
Rodgers had high hopes going into the contest but was left shattered at the way his team gifted away their aggregate advantage to Roberto Mancini’s victorious hosts and at the same time struggled to lay on glove on Zenit.
He said: “We were much better than them
in the first leg and, if we played with a little bit more courage and belief, we could maybe have got a result.
“Defensively we lacked aggression, particularly in the first half. We didn’t close the space quick enough.
“We talk about defending forward and we just didn’t defend forward well enough. We conceded poor goals from that.
“The corner is one that can happen, we were blocked off, they worked it well and found the space. Branislav [Ivanovic] is outstanding in the air.
“The second goal, we didn’t engage quickly enough from the throw-in. We’re too deep and have to press the guy who was shooting.
“At 2-0, we still have an opportunity in the game, but everything was too sideways and backwards. That’s about bravery and having that courage to play.
“Possession is no good on its own. You have to penetrate and have that creativity. We didn’t have enough quality control to play forward in the first half.
“We didn’t threaten at all in that first half because we were too negative in our play.
“The second half was a little better, but you have to defend better and the third goal was a very disappointing goal for us to concede.
“When they get to 3-0, they can control the game more without the ball.
“We played so well in the first game and the idea was to start off similar, to try to defend well and create opportunities.
“It’s sometimes easy to play when you are 3-0 down and, with so many young players in the team, you see the contrast from last week.
“We started the second half okay but, again, we concede possession too cheaply and they work the ball round for a cross. We should never concede that type of goal.”