Celts stroll to victory over Belgian cracks
Brendan Rodgers watched his A and B teams combine in a stroll to victory yesterday then insisted he still wanted John McGinn and others to join the club.
The Hoops have had bids of £1.5 and £1.75 million for the Scotland international rejected by Hibs but remain keen to bring him for the tilt at the Treble Treble.
It is understood the Edinburgh club have privately intimated they are prepared to let the player have the move along the M8 he craves but that it will take £2.5 million, plus Scott Allan, to get the deal done.
That is some £500,000 less than the transfer would cost English clubs and Allan’s current status at Parkhead was underlined yesterday by his presence not among the 11 starters, but in the change team brought on at half time.
“It is with the clubs,” said Rodgers when asked about the McGinn move.
“Between Neil Lennon and I, it’s out of our hands.
“Hopefully for everyone’s sake it can be resolved, but it’s above me.
“Absolutely, we need to strengthen, and that will come.
“It’s only in certain specific areas, it’s not a total overhaul. We’ve been building, developing and growing for the last few years and this will hopefully be another year to do that.”
Rodgers went with a strong Celtic starting line-up, keeper Scott Bain the only change from the side which won convincingly against Alashkert in Armenia in the clubs’ Champions League qualifier.
And from the first whistle they were right at it with Moussa Dembele and Odsonne Edouard grabbing the opportunity to show how much they enjoy playing alongside one another up front.
It took less than a quarter of the game for both men to get on the scoresheet, Edouard with a particularly eye-catching curled finish, during which time Dembele also hit the crossbar.
By half time Callum McGregor had also got in on the act.
Striding into space high in Liege’s half, he collected a great pass from his fellow midfielder Olivier Ntcham, before drilling a low shot across keeper Jean-Francois Gillet and in at the far corner.
The second string carried on where they left off – at least initially.
If Scott Sinclair felt aggrieved at being included in the fringe group, he didn’t show it, taking only 10 minutes to make an impact with a clever through ball to put Mikey Johnston in on goal.
The teenager still had work to do and did it well, clipping the ball over the keeper in some style to make it four before Duje Cop netted a consolation for the Belgian side.
“I was very pleased with both halves,” said Rodgers.
“We were playing against a good side, a side that just missed out on winning the Belgian league last year and won the Belgian Cup, so we knew it was going to be a good standard.
“They have speed in their team but I thought our fluency, the speed of our game and the crispness of it was outstanding.
“The first half, the shape of the team caused lots of problems for them and the quality of our goals was exceptional.
“Congratulations to the club and the ground staff because I have been crying about a pitch here for a long time and you see the speed of it and it was great for us.
“I think our identity and purpose to our game is always to be very fast, dynamic and aggressive and when you have a really good, fast pitch it supports that way of playing.
“It was a big investment by the club, £1.5 million but they get their rewards.”
celtic:
(4-4-2) Bain (Hazard 46), Hendry (Ralston 46), Ajer (Welsh 46), Simunovic (Compper 46), Tierney (Miller 46); Brown (Kouassi 46), Ntcham (Allan 46), McGregor (Henderson 46), Forrest (Johnston 46); Edouard (Sinclair 46), Dembele (Christie 46).