Manager rues telling end to tough 90 minutes in Rome | OneFootball

It was a tough night for Celtic in Rome’s Stadio Olimpico with a 2-0 defeat to Lazio ending the club’s hope of European football after Christmas.

The game was hanging in the balance until Ciro Immobile’s two late goals in the final 10 minutes undid any hope the Celts had of taking anything from the game.

And it was the final moments of the 90 minutes that disappointed manager, Brendan Rodgers.

After the game he told Celtic TV: “We’re very disappointed, I thought we managed the game well. In the first half we were slow with our passes that were too safe but there were still one or two opportunities.

“But we didn’t keep the ball well enough high enough up the pitch.

“We started to get into some really good positions and it looked like a really good away performance, but we gave away two disappointing goals really.

“The first one we were in a great position on the pitch and then we didn’t recover back in.

“The guy gets a lucky deflection and it goes into Immobile’s path and he does what he’s done all his career and finishes.

“The second one we’ve got to be stronger and all of a sudden the game is away from us.”

The first goal arrived just as Celtic looked to be in the ascendency. And the writing was on the wall from that moment.

The manager added: “It’s that physicality in the game towards the end, you’ve got to be strong and you’ve got to do that sort of dirty work.

“We looked like the team that was getting to the aggressive areas on the field, so I was disappointed with that.”

Fixtures

Lazio Vs. Celtic - Tue, Nov 28th 2023, 17:45 Final score: 2 - 0