Rodgers’ pride in young duo
● Celtic manager hails Hendry and Ajer after stalemate sets up clash with Athens
Celtic manager brendan rodgers singled out his youthful centre-back pairing of Jack Hendry and Kristoffer Ajer for special praise after a clean sheet in Trondheim ensured the club’s passage to a Champions League third round qualifying tie against AEK Athens.
Rodgers conceded his team failed to hit the heights in the scoreless draw away to Rosenborg last night, which followed a 3-1 first-leg victory, but in Hendry and Ajer he had two performers who ensured Celtic accomplished the required task, and took them to the halfway point in a qualifying campaign that requires them to negotiate four rounds to reach the Champions League group stages for a third consecutive year.
“Jack Hendry and Kris Ajer were outstanding,” he said. “They are young centre-halves and they’ll learn a lot from tonight. You’ll not always play perfect football but you’ve always got to defend and win headers, so to come away and keep a clean sheet was very pleasing and now on to the next round.
“I think we showed the maturity with the players in how they are developing. I said to them afterwards I’m very proud. OK, we’ll play better football and we need to be cleaner with our passing and build-up, but what you’ve got to show is a mentality to defend and I thought we did that exceptionally well.
“We didn’t play well in first half, didn’t pass the ball well enough. So we tweaked the side slightly at half-time in order for us to build the game from behind and for the first 20, 25 minutes we had decent control without creating so much. The last 15 minutes they put balls into the box but we dealt with that.”
Rodgers said he was “not sure” that AEK will represent a notable step up in difficulty from the Norwegian champions, as is generally believed, and said he was “not bothered” that the Greeks will be faced at home first – the match to be played in Glasgow next Wednesday.
“You certainly have to take advantage and that’s what we’ve done in the campaigns since I’ve been here by bringing our aggression,” the Celtic manager said. “If you’ve got your first leg at home you can bring a scoreline that can get you through. If you think of the Be’er-sheva first leg we did that [with a 5-2 win], Astana the home leg got us through [with a 5-0 win] and obviously the home leg in this tie got us through [after we won 3-1]. I’m pleased with the players’ resilience, especially a young group, that are evolving and getting better.
“I’ll watch AEK now we’re definitely playing them. They are eleven human beings, we’ ll be at home and it will be a difficult game, but it will be a difficult game for them also.”
Celtic negotiated their way into the third qualifying round of the Champions League with a 3-1 aggregate victory against Rosenborg following a gritty goalless draw at the Lerkendal Stadium last night.
The Scottish champions took a two-goal advantage to Norway from the first leg of their second qualifying round in Glasgow but were tentative in a first half which saw an added-time save from keeper Craig Gordon prevent Marius Lundemo from opening the scoring for the home side.
Brendan Rodgers’ men frustrated their hosts after the break without threatening too much themselves and the Norwegians ran out of imagination and inspiration and ultimately out of the competition.
Celtic, who have qualified for the lucrative group stages of the competition in the last two seasons under Rodgers, now take on AEK Athens in the next round, with the first match at Parkhead next week and with a possible play-off to follow.
Rodgers kept faith with the same side which started in the first leg, with regular right-back Mikael Lustig on the bench after returning late from World Cup duties with Sweden.
Celtic had started the game in Glasgow unsteadily and lost an early goal to Birger Meling before rallying in style and this time there were a few first-half scares.
Only a saving tackle by Cristian Gamboa in the seventh minute, with the visiting defence stretched, prevented Pal Andre Helland going clear in on goal against Gordon.
The Parkhead defender was less concise when his attempted headed clearance landed at the feet of Meling but his wild drive cleared the bar by yards.
In the 16th minute Gordon caused some alarm among the 200 or so travelling Celtic fans when he fumbled a whipped-in cross from Helland, with stopper Jack Hendry unconvincingly completing the clearance.
The home side grew in confidence but at times their passing lacked precision, although Lundemo’s close-range header from Helland’s cross inside two minutes of added-time was goalbound before Gordon stretched to tip the ball over the bar.
Within a minute of the restart a powerful run from Odsonne Edouard, aided by Callum Mcgregor, ended with his right-footed drive from 14 yards escaping the far post.
The swift move promised a more dynamic Celtic but Rosenborg quickly responded with efforts from Meling and skipper Mike Jensen, both going wide.
In the 65th minute, after Tom Rogic replaced James Forrest, Gordon made a fine save from an angled drive by Rosenborg substitute Jonathan Levi, on earlier for Helland.
The home side, under the tutelage of interim boss Rini Coolen, the academy director who took over from the sacked Kare Ingebrigtsen before the game at Parkhead, saw the tie slowly drift away.
Rosenborg had the ball in the net in the 87th minute but Swiss referee Sandro Scharer ruled it out for a challenge by Nicklas Bendtner on Gordon and, with that, all Norwegian hope was gone. ROSENBORG: Hansen, Hedenstadt, Hovland, Reginiussen, Meling, Jensen, Lundemo (Botheim 90), Trondsen (Vilhjalmsson 75), Helland (Levi 58), Bendtner, Soderlund. Subs not used: Ostbo, Gersbach, Reitan, Serbecic. CELTIC: Gordon, Gamboa, Hendry, Ajer, Tierney (Lustig 85), Forrest (Rogic 63), Mcgregor, Brown, Ntcham, Sinclair, Edouard (Christie 72). Subs not used: Bain, Hayes, Johnston, Eboue.