Sport nationBrendan Rodgers Reveals Half-Time Team Talk That Inspired Celtic’s Champions League Rout
Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has shared the inspiring words he told his players at half-time, which sparked their thrilling 5-1 victory over Slovan Bratislava in the Champions League.
Rodgers’ Celtic side were only 1-0 up at the interval, courtesy of Liam Scales’ goal. However, the Bhoys came out in the second half with renewed intensity, scoring four more goals through Kyogo Furuhashi, Daizen Maeda, Arne Engels, and Adam Idah.
When asked about his half-time team talk, Rodgers revealed that he emphasized the importance of simplicity and maintaining their pressing game.
“We just reiterated we don’t have to do anything special. Just be us. Just play our game, don’t complicate the game,” Rodgers told TNT Sport.
Rodgers also highlighted a few tactical adjustments, focusing on positioning and maintaining forward momentum.
“There were a couple of things around the positioning. When we took the ball to one side and went the other side back again our positioning just wasn’t quite there, which meant we would play sideways or backwards instead of being able to play forwards,” he explained.
The Celtic manager praised his players’ “greed, hunger, pressing, and counter-pressing” in the second half, describing their performance as “wow.”
“The second half, wow. Just the mentality of the team. I was so proud and the quality of the goals was sensational,” Rodgers said.
He attributed the success to his team’s selfless approach, where players work together to create scoring opportunities.
“In a lot of the teams I have, the goal contribution is shared throughout because we don’t want to put the burden on any one player. The guys are very clear in what they have to do,” Rodgers added.
With Celtic’s impressive Champions League victory, fans are eagerly anticipating their upcoming fixtures, including a blockbuster match against Borussia Dortmund.
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