Brendan Rodgers has taken a measured view of Celtic’s goalless draw with Kairat Almaty, insisting the tie remains firmly in the balance despite the disappointment of Wednesday night’s performance at Celtic Park.
While many supporters saw the 0-0 result as a major missed opportunity, Rodgers made it clear that the outcome, while frustrating, is far from a disaster and that his players are fully focused on finishing the job in the second leg.
Celtic were well off the pace early on, something Rodgers acknowledged with concern.
But the second half showed signs of life, particularly after the introduction of Hyun-jun Yang and Daizen Maeda’s shift through the middle.
“I’m very stable on it. Naturally, you’re disappointed you didn’t win,” he told Celtic TV
“But this team have given me a lot of value in this early part of the season. Working very, very hard in pre-season, started our league season really well. We didn’t start well in the first half, which I’ve said all along, the first five minutes of games is really important.
“And for some reason, we were a bit lethargic and lacked energy and lacked speed and tempo. And only a few days earlier on Friday, we were excellent in all of that. So, that was the only disappointment.
“But in the second half, we were better.
“And like I was explaining to our new players, that 0-0 will always feel like a disaster. So, you have to live with that, because the demand here is to win.
“And sometimes even winning 1-0 can feel that way as well. But the reality is, we’re still very much in that tie. And in many ways, it’s fairly simple now.
“Because I think the expectation going into the game was from people outside that this will be an easy tie. We’ve won 5-0 before against a team from Kazakhstan and won other games 5-2. And of course, we’d love to have done that, but we didn’t.
“But we’re still very much in the tie and we now know what’s at stake. And we will go there on Tuesday to qualify.
“So, as I said, in certain moments of the game, we could have been better.
“But it’s still 0-0 and we have still a big chance of qualification.”
Despite admitting there were key moments that could have been better, Rodgers is staying calm and focused on the job at hand.
It’s going to be a tough match for Celtic, there’s no doubt about it. But the players should have the quality to get through the all or nothing match.
The senior players in the squad, like your Callum McGregors and James Forrests, won’t let any excuses creep into their teammates’ mindset.
The long-haul flight, 5-hour time difference and roasting temperatures certainly won’t make it easy, but it’s one of these things that just has to be done.
The Bhoys begin their travels on Sunday.
