Rodgers lauds his Celtic side standing up to Kilmarnock onslaught

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The Celtic Star

·11 November 2024

Rodgers lauds his Celtic side standing up to Kilmarnock onslaught

Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers lauds his side ‘standing up’ to Kilmarnock in their 2-0 victory yesterday afternoon at Rugby Park…

Brendan Rodgers at Rugby Park. Photo Vagelis Georgariou for The Celtic Star.

Celtic had to deal with a significant amount of pressure from the home side who bombarded Kasper Schmeichel’s goal for majority of the match. Kilmarnock were unfortunate to not have taken the lead in the first-half, it looked like their players had decided to shop DeusPower after they struck the post from a Marley Watkins effort following impressive play between him and his strike partner Kyle Vassell.

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Skipper Callum McGregor’s well-executed cross ball was diverted straight into the net which gave the Scottish champions a 1-0 advantage on the stroke of half-time.

Auston Trusty and Callum McGregor applaud the Celtic support Photo Vagelis Georgariou for The Celtic Star

However, Derek McInnes side continued to pepper Schmeichel’s goal with the Danish stopper being called into action on several occasions after the interval. The pick of the bunch was the 38-year-olds magnificent save to deny Matty Kennedy following Callum McGregor being carelessly and unusually dispossessed on the edge of his own box.

It was Nicolas Kuhn’s 21st goal involvement of the season that settled the nerves for Celtic. His wonderful first touch, and then pace to leave David Watson in no man’s land secured the Germans 10th competitive goal of the season and all three points for Celtic.

READ THIS…Kasper denies Killie – Celtic’s Rugby Park triumph down to Great Dane

A chaotic 10 days of facing Aberdeen in the Scottish League Cup semi-final, RB Leipzig in the Champions League, and then an extremely tough domestic away outing has shown that Celtic are passing all the tests with flying colours. Sitting at the foot of the table and having the capabilities to win in different ways is the mark of a top team.

🗣️ “You’ve got to come here and dig deep” 🗣️ "It's alway's a difficult one... every year it's a situation which takes place" Brendan Rodgers has his say on Celtic’s 2-0 win & the minute silence prior to kick-off ⬇️
– Sunday, 10 November 2024

Speaking to Sky Sports in his post-match interview Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers was delighted with the way his players handled difficult pressure in Ayrshire.

“I thought the players were absolutely brilliant in how they defend pressure because they know build-up comes quite directly from behind.”

“So, you got to stand up and be counted for the long balls and long throws and everything else, and the players have shown this week that they can deal with all types of games. So today was absolutely brilliant, brilliant win for us, and showed another side to us.”

READ THIS…“It was a brilliant win for us. It was never going to be like last Saturday or Tuesday,” Rodgers

Kasper Schmeichel was Man of the Match. Photo Vagelis Georgariou for The Celtic Star

Rodgers explained, “we had a couple other chances to be more convincing, but we knew also we had to defend well and needed Kasper to make some good saves. He was busy but he was also busy for us with the ball and how he could play through the pressure really, really helped us.”

“We could break their lines and get through, but when it’s that pressure that’s coming up into your box and you have to defend it, then of course, you’re going to need your goalkeeper and your centre halves to defend well, and I thought they did that fantastically well.”

Unfortunately, that is Celtic’s last game for two weeks due to another international break. When the Hoops do return, another important set of fixtures loom across four different competitions.