RODGERS DODGES AN EARLY NADIR
Forgotten man Ciftci on target as Brendan begins with a draw
HOW do you pick your best starting line-up for Champions League challenges and domestic confrontations which are rushing out of the calendar with indecent haste?
For Brendan Rodgers, it all started here. He selected two entirely different teams for both halves of a pre-season friendly and hoped to learn something about the 22 men involved by the end of it.
The record books will show that the Celtic second XI — if they could be called that — outperformed the men entrusted with the first 45 minutes of the Rodgers Revolution, clawing back a 2-0 half-time deficit to earn a hard-fought draw on a steamy night in Slovenia.
The first goal came from forgotten frontman Nadir Ciftci, back from his half-season loan spell in Turkey and looking full of fight.
An equaliser followed from Tom Rogic — scorer of perhaps the decisive goal in last season’s title triumph — and ensured that former Liverpool boss Rodgers avoided the minor indignity of losing his first match at the helm.
Yes, yes, we know. Nobody was pretending that the actual result against NK Celje actually mattered.
However, on a night when Ciftci, Patrick Roberts, Stuart Armstrong — with two assists — and a few others most definitely staked the earliest claims for selection come the start of the season proper, it felt like a nice detail for the new coaching staff.
Rodgers’ return to the front line of football management, eight months on from bowing out amid the mayhem of a Merseyside derby at Goodison Park, was always likely to be an odd sort of occasion. The selection policy employed said everything about his priorities.
Here was a chance for players to rediscover their touch, put into practice all the tweaked drills and fresh exercises introduced by the new manager and — they would all have hoped — persuade him of their irreplaceable status ahead of the serious European business.
New striker Moussa Dembele was here but not involved, his acquisition a sign that Rodgers is likely to have backing to make signings in key areas.
So, more than a few of the Celtic players would have been feeling under pressure. And, given the conditions here yesterday, working up quite a sweat even sitting on the bench.
The Arena Petrol in Celje, a short drive through the lush green mountains from Celtic’s Maribor training base, was only slightly cooler than the inside of a kiln at kick-off just before 8pm local time.
When this particular corner of central Europe — don’t ever call it the Balkans, unless you want to be run out of town — gets summer sunshine, it hangs on to the heat like a baby clinging to its mother.
The starting line-up was notable for towering Norwegian Kristoffer Ajer making his debut in central defence, as well as Scott Allan, Ryan Christie, Stefan Johansen and James Forrest all playing behind lone striker Leigh Griffiths.
And they might well be glad that their exposure to such a stifling atmosphere was being limited to 45 minutes.
In a ground with only the main stand open, and even that was sparsely occupied, the sight of home goalkeeper Amel Mujcinovic being applauded off the park during the match added to the quasi-testimonial feel. The referee actually stopped the match on 18 minutes to accommodate his farewell after 18 years at the club.
Even so, professional footballers are competitive beasts by nature. Give them a bounce game and they’ll want to win. An early header from Christie that went just wide was at least some statement of attacking intent from the visitors, while Griffiths drilling a low shot wide from a Johansen cross was further evidence of their threat.
Yet the home side looked more cohesive, perhaps understandably, given they are just that bit further on in their pre-season.
Even before their opener, former St Mirren man Jure Travner had forced Craig Gordon into an terrific one-on-one save.
Celje were enjoying a good return on their left, giving Celtic right-back Darnell Fisher a torrid time.
A cross from that area saw Matej Podlogar have a header deflected over the bar with 27 minutes gone. The cornerkick from the opposite flank was straight off the training ground. Travner rolled the ball to the edge of the box as captain Danijel Miskic arrived, his right-footed shot beating a partially unsighted Gordon. The half-time Celtic replacements, if they don’t mind the label, actually started pretty well after the break. Roberts picked out an excellent run from Ciftci, whose low effort was turned behind at the near post. However, with just three minutes of the second half gone, the home skipper Miskic bagged a second for his team. His 20-yard free-kick took one of those wicked Euro 2016-style deflections off the wall, leaving Celtic’s Italian keeper Leonardo Fasan helpless. Roberts, likened by his new manager to Spain and Manchester City’s David Silva, was clearly in a particularly impish mood.
Put him together with Armstrong, who also seems determined to emerge from the pack of about a dozen attacking-midfield options, and Celtic looked pretty good going forward.
They were rewarded for their efforts after 55 minutes.
First, Roberts and then Armstrong caused havoc on the left side of the penalty box to create the opening.
The Scot danced past a challenge and stood up a cross for Ciftci to head home his first Celtic goal since December last year.
With just over 20 minutes gone in the second period, young Anthony Ralston then stepped up from defence to send in a fizzing low shot which was spilled by NK Celje keeper Matic Kotnik.
It was the prelude to yet another piece of intelligent, incisive play from Armstrong, who slipped Rogic in behind the defence for a clever clipped finish.
By this stage of proceedings, the match announcer had taken to livening up the small crowd by announcing that Poland had gone 1-0 up on Portugal in some other match.
As if that mattered…