Brendan Rodgers was unhappy Arne Engels could have lost an eye after being hit by a coin at Ibrox.
But the Celtic boss insisted he has no complaints at losing the match as his Hoops suffered a shock stuffing by Rangers. Rodgers’ side were dumped 3-0 with sub Engels – who was a late withdrawal from starting line up due to a bug – caught by a missile towards the end of the game. The manager said: “Yes, thankfully he’s only – an inch lower, he would have been right in the eye. It’s not obviously great for the game, but, yes, he’s okay.”
A statement from Rangers also slammed the incident, reading: “Rangers FC condemns this incident in the strongest possible terms. The club confirm it will assist Police Scotland with their investigation.”
Rodgers was gutted to go down to only his second Old Firm defeat in 21 clashes. But he admitted his men were second best. Rodgers said: “I can look at it from two perspectives. I think I can analyse the game today and see that we weren’t very good and the better team won.
“So, I can accept that. The bigger picture, we reached the halfway point in the season, 11 points clear, players have been absolutely first class up until this point in so many ways. And this setback today, from losing the game, you can learn from and be better for going forward.
“But, on the game, the best team won, deserved to win. For us, it’s the bigger picture and a great place in the league. And this is just a little reminder of the things it takes to win a game. We’re very disappointed. I thought the best team won, so congratulations to Rangers.
“I thought they had the edge in the game that we never had. We started okay, first three or four minutes, but then we made too many mistakes with the ball today – obviously one of them leading to their first goal and from that it gives them a lift to defend that lead and gives the stadium a lift. And from that, we never really responded.
“So, yeah, attacking-wise, again, we never had much in the game. So, really, really disappointed with the performance and clearly the result.”
Celtic still have an 11 point lead in the Premiership and Rodgers admitted it looked like Rangers needed the result more. He said: “Well, they definitely showed that. I said it before, the game, it wouldn’t matter if we were 50 points clear.
“Celtic-Rangers is everything for our supporters, for people everywhere. But we never played with that edge today and that personality that the team has shown consistently. So, yeah, as a collective, we just weren’t quite there. And, like I said, the first goal is from a mistake. We must do better from the corner and then, obviously, then we give the ball away. So, we were just very passive, I felt, today, which is unlike us. And, like I said, we got punished for that.”
Rodgers had to rip up his team sheet with Engels under the weather but the Hoops boss admitted his midfield was out of sorts. He said: “Arne woke up this morning not feeling well. He was sick. I spoke to him and we decided he’d go on the bench and Paolo [Bernardo] would come in and start.
“We didn’t control the midfield with just too many slack passes. As I said, our possession game has been at a really high level for a long period and with that, you get the possibility to penetrate. But I thought we gave the ball away too easy today, both when we were under pressure, but also when we were under no pressure, we were kicking the ball out. So, yes, it’s one of the games you have to look at. It’s not nice, especially when you’re a supporter watching that, but we have to analyse it and be better next game.”