‘We’ll stand up to Well’
● Tierney says Celtic can handle physical challenge to win cup as thank you to fans
Kieran Tierney is confident Celtic will “stand up” to the physical challenge posed by Betfred Cup final opponents Motherwell at Hampden on Sunday.
The Fir Park club attracted criticism, notably from the Parkhead side’s manager Brendan Rodgers, for their style of play in their semifinal victory over Rangers last month. That game saw the Ibrox club’s defender Fabio Cardoso suffer a broken nose in a clash with Ryan Bowman.
Motherwell striker Bowman had previously angered Celtic in February this year with a knee-high challenge on Tierney during a league fixture which Rodgers claimed could have ended the 20-year-old right-back’s career.
Tierney is preparing himself for an arduous test against his hometown club this weekend but insists he and his teammates will cope with whatever approach Stephen Robinson’s side bring to the first showpiece occasion of the domestic season.
“Everyone knows about the tackle he [Bowman] made on me,” said Tierney. “I don’t think he meant it and I wouldn’t like to think he meant it.
“Motherwell are a strong and physical team but we have shown over the past season and a bit we can stand up to all the different challenges that are put in front us.
“We also know they are an inform team. You don’t go up to Aberdeen and win 2-0, which they did last weekend, if you are not a good team. They will be fresh and really confident and we know it will be a really tough game.”
Tierney says Celtic now have additional motivation to lift the silverware after suffering their 7-1 Champions League defeat against Paris Saintgermain on Wednesday night which was watched by a stunned travelling support of over 2,000 in the Parc des Princes.
“We want to win the cup even more now for the fans,” added Tierney. “They paid a lot of money and gave up their hard earned cash to come over to Paris to watch us. They are a great support and we let them down on Wednesday.
“But everybody gave their all, there is no doubt about that. This team always gives their all. Hopefully, we can now repay the fans on Sunday.
“You need to put the negatives away and think positive. We have to learn from it and as footballers you are going to have bad days. It is part of the job and Sunday is all about bouncing back. We have to put the PSG game behind us now. It is done and we’ve had the chat and now we have a massive game on Sunday and that is what we are preparing for.”
For Brendan Rodgers, principles come with a cost which he remains happy to pay as Celtic manager.
The debate over whether he should adopt a less expansive approach when his team mix with Europe’s super powers has become futile. He has made it abundantly clear he won’t, regardless of how many crushing defeats the Scottish champions suffer while trying to impose their style of play against the continental elite.
Celtic have now conceded 33 goals in the 11 Champions League group stage fixtures they have played under Rodgers, a sequence now bookended by the 7-0 loss in Barcelona at the start of last season and Wednesday night’s 7-1 pasting at the hands of a rampant Paris Saint-germain.
Results which would once have caused outrage and fury among supporters are now largely greeted with a collective shrug of the shoulders. There is a general acceptance of their place in the grander scheme of things when they step outside of the domestic environment they are dominating as never before.
While Dorus de Vries experienced the pain of retrieving the ball from his net seven times at the Nou Camp last year, it was Craig Gordon who bore the brunt of PSG’S attacking brilliance this time around.
The 34-year-old Scotland goalkeeper is never found wanting when it comes to making a defence of his own abilities and he firmly rejects any notion of culpability for the goals which flew past him in the Parc des Princes.
Gordon is equally dismissive of suggestions there are times, like Wednesday night, when Rodgers and Celtic would be better served by performing in a more pragmatic fashion.
“We could just kick it long to them and the ball would still come back at us,” said Gordon. “That’s the debate, yes, should we still play it out from the back against these teams. But you don’t have any of the ball if you do just kick it long, you just try to limit the damage from the start. So you can sit there and just wait to get beat, or you can try to make a game of it.
“That’s always our way, we want to try to play. We gave away a few goals we weren’t happy with but some of them were just ridiculous quality from PSG. There were a few when we gave the ball away and players of that quality will hurt you.
“They had an incredible night. Everything they seemed to hit was going in off the post. The finishing was just brilliant. It’s hard to take at times. Every good chance they make, they are clinical. They made us pay and that shows the quality they have.
“We had a couple of chances ourselves – we took one but we weren’t as clinical in that final third as them.
“I don’t think there was much I could do about any of the goals. I was up against tremendous quality. They are an expensive front three – Neymar, Cavani and Mbappe – and when they get chances, they take them more often than not.
“I could go through all of the goals. But I could walk out of the stadium with my head held high. I had a few decent saves in the game. I’d like to have had more but the quality of the finishing was so good that I wasn’t able to do that.”
Celtic can certainly consider they found themselves in the toughest possible Champions League group this season. Both they and Anderlecht have conceded 17 goals so far as PSG and Bayern Munich have cruised into the last 16.
No team in any of the other seven groups have conceded as many.
“That’s the quality PSG possess,” added Gordon. “They hardly missed the target all night. You have to hope they have an off night and don’t perform like that. When they do, they are capable of doing that in the rest of this competition to a few more teams.”
Itwasgordon’sheaviestbeating since he was also on the end of a 7-1 defeat while playing for Sunderland against Everton in 2008, a result which led to himbeing dropped by then manager Roy Keane.
“It’s not enjoyable,” he admitted. “But you have to accept PSG are probably the best team in Europe at this time. We want to challenge ourselves against these teams and, on any given night, we can. Wednesday wasn’t that night. They were just too good.
“There were parts of the game when we actually did quite well, we made some good moves and passed the ball well. We made a few mistakes but we kept trying to play, so the manager will definitely find some positives from that. We just came up against a team who finished their chances so well.
“I will watch it back, like I do every game. There are always things you can improve on. I’ll look at it with my goalkeeping coach Stevie Woods but I don’t think we’ll have too many talking points, to be honest.
“That sometimes happens to a goalkeeper. You can go through a game not making many saves and losing a few goals if the finishing is of that standard. That’s the life of a goalkeeper. You have to accept it and move on to the next game.
“I’ve lost seven before in my career, so it’s not the first time. I certainly didn’t want it to be any more than that and I probably had my best save of the night at 7-1, down to my left-hand side. It stopped it getting to eight, which would have been even worse.”
Compensation for Celtic