Tom has no doubts for Socceroos after Treble glory
TOM ROGIC reckons his Treble-winning heroics with Celtic helped him keep Australia’s World Cup bid on track in sensational style yesterday.
The 24-year-old followed up his dramatic Scottish Cup-clinching strike against Aberdeen last month with a winner for the Socceroos against Saudi Arabia.
Rogic’s 64th-minute stunner earned the Aussies a crucial 3-2 victory and hauled them level with Saudi Arabia and Japan in their World Cup qualifying group.
And the midfielder is convinced his invincible season at club level was behind his international impact.
Asked about his goal, he said: “It wasn’t bad! I thought it was coming. We started to get on top in the second-half and I just wanted to get the boys on the right way and we got the win which was the most important thing.
“We made it a little difficult for ourselves in the first-half but we showed our quality and limited them in the second-half to too many chances.
“It’s been fantastic. It’s always a different set-up coming into camp and always a proud moment.
“Coming in off the back of a good season, a successful one where you’re in a winning culture and you get used to winning trophies, it helps here.”
Rogic has become a hero down under, although Socceroos boss Ange Postecoglou insisted the Celtic midfielder ‘owed’ his country one. He said: “There were no magic words from me [at half-time]. The players were kicking themselves,.
“The second-half was very pleasing, very strong. It gives the players a great deal of encouragement of what we try to do.”
Asked about Rogic’s goal, he added: “It’s great watching him at Celtic, but he owes us one.”