Rodgers praises hungry Hoop Griffiths after vital strike

Brendan Rodgers hailed Leigh Griffiths for doing what he does best after the striker climbed off the bench to score a late winner for Celtic in their 1-0 Europa League Group B win against Rosenborg at Parkhead last night.

The Premiership champions struggled until the 87 th minute when the Scotland international, on for Odsonne Edouard, headed in a Dedryck Boyata knockdown for three points that had looked like escaping them.

Griffiths, who recently signed a new four-year contract with the club, had been left out of the Scotland team by manager Alex McLeish for the Nations League opener with Albania, with Rodgers looking for improvement.

However, after the timely winner from Griffiths, the Northern Irishman said: “It is not just Leigh, every player needs to improve, every player has the responsibility to get better, especially at the top end of the field.

“What we know with Leigh is he can score goals so you fancy him in a game like that, if there is a chance he can take it and it was the only chance he had in the game. He read the ball into the box, anticipated it and it was a great finish.

“He is vital to this club because whether he plays or is on the bench, he wants to play for Celtic, he has that hunger.

“Nights like tonight are brilliant for him. He knows when he comes on the pitch, if he gets a chance there is a big chance he will score and we need that in the team. He is 28, he signed a four-year deal.

“We still think there is more improvement that he can make but not just him, the rest of the players as well. It is the first three points in the group stage.”

Celtic recorded an opening group stage win for the first time in 15 attempts.

Rodgers said: “Rosenborg had won nine and drawn two, so they came here with confidence. They surprised us a little bit for the first 20 minutes, played a diamond and they had never played that when we had analysed them but once we found the balance to play against that we started to come into the game.

“I said to the players that we had to find a way to win and the players did that.”

Rosenborg manager Rini Coolen described his side’s performance as “good but not good enough”.