Brendan Rodgers admits Celtic were far too comfortable in the first half of their dramatic come-from-behind win over Ross County.
Dortmund may have ripped the out of it in midweek, but Rodgers felt the champions were firmly back in their comfort zone during the opening 45 minutes in Dingwall. Ronan Hale’s retaken penalty two minutes before the break served as a wake up call, and a fire more fired up Celtic re-emerged from the tunnel after the break, and turned things around through Alistair Johnston and Nicolas Kuhn
The Rodgers told Sky Sports: “Listen, nothing surprises you. We just need it to be faster, we were just too slow. There’s no easy game but you can’t look for an easy game either. So you’ve got to get out of your comfort zone and I thought it was too comfortable first half. Just in everything; speed, , movement, not enough runs to break the line and it gave us very little. We had lots of the ball but not penetrating enough, but sometimes that can happen. You can’t always be perfect.
“The second half, I thought the guys coming into the game – Paulo (Bernardo) and Luke (McCowan) were outstanding. Movement, flexible, got on the ball, made runs and Kyogo coming in stretched the line and Jamesy (Forrest) with his quality. So we had the means to affect the game and thankfully, things turned out well for us.”
Asked if the first half was down to a hangover from their Dortmund, Rodgers replied: “Yeah, these things can happen. When you’re playing against a well organised team, it can happen.
“But of course it’s a big energy to put into the game like we had and then you;re coming here again and you have to produce the same energy to get the win. We just didn’t quite have that in the first half.
“But thankfully the players showed a magnificent response. I’ve always said resilience, grit and determination – this team have that in bucket loads so we were able to get the result. Seven wins out of seven is a great start for us.”
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