Brendan Rodgers admitted 10 minutes of carelessness cost Celtic as Aberdeen blasted back from two goals down to take a point in a sensational top of the table showdown at Parkhead.
The Hoops boss said he will find out on Sunday if Cameron Carter-Vickers is fit to return to his backline for Wednesday’s Champions League trip to face Atalanta. But he knows he could be doing with the American international back at the heart of his ropey backline that was given a torrid second half pounding from the Pittodrie men.
A remarkable encounter saw Ester Sokler and Graeme Shinnie net after the break to cancel out Reo Hatate and Kyogo’s first half strikes and ensure the Dons remain level on points with the champions. Both sides had goals chalked off as the game careered into 12 added minutes at the end. Rodgers said he knew it wasn’t going to be perfect with so many of his players returning from international duty. But he said: “We’re obviously disappointed.
“When you drop points, whether it’s home or away, but especially at home you’re disappointed. So no, we got punished for being careless in that ten minute period.
We had good control first half, should have been more in front. And then probably around about that 50th minute, 60th minute, a little bit passive, without the ball, lacked aggression.
“And when you play how we play, if you don’t have that, then there’s a space in behind. And they finished it well.
“And obviously in the second one we were careless, we gave it a bit in a really, really poor area. And then they get the goal for two each.
“But then after that we go again and whatever it was, 32 shots or something on goal. And that makes you a really good defending by them and really good goalkeeping we didn’t get the winner. But yeah, we were careless in that second half.”
Asked if Carter-Vickers is likely to return for Wednesday, Rodgers would only say: “I will see tomorrow”.
Rodgers had claimed his side were “spooked” by the ferocity of Borussia Dortmund in the 7-1 thrashing in Germany a fortnight ago. And asked if he felt the same happened as the Dons upped the ante in the second half or if it was just a sloppy 10 minutes, the manager said: “I think it’s a wee mixture of both.
“No matter how much control you have, 2-0 is a dangerous scoreline, especially if the opponent gets the next goal because it gives them an energy. And then all of a sudden very quickly it was a second one.
“In fairness to my players they regain their spirit and their mentality and you can see then the speed of the game, how it all changes and you see the Aberdeen players suffering with that intensity. But we needed that from the beginning of the half.
“I knew it wasn’t going to be perfect today, coming on to the back of all the guys travelling all the way around the world and coming back in together, but I would expect us to see that game through. You have to give credit to Aberdeen, they 2-0 down and we were the dominant team in the game.
“Jimmy and his team, they’re well coached, well organised and the changes, it worked for him. But when I look at it from our perspective, he doesn’t get the through ball at all if our press is right.
“It just doesn’t come and that’s what I’m talking about being a bit passive and a bit careless on it because the thing we talked about before the game was this is a game where we only dominate the ball, but we’ll only do that by being really super aggressive without it. And in those moments when you’re not, good teams will punish you and that’s what happened to us.
“Then we speed up the game, we play with the intensity, the aggression and we create a load of chances and then we couldn’t score. I think for Aberdeen, it’s a really good point for them and for us. We’re obviously disappointed with the result.”
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