'That was the whole idea of coming out,' Brendan Rodgers on Celtic at Como Cup

At Como’s Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia, the Hoops were resoundingly beaten in their penultimate pre-season encounter as the Dutch outfit sealed an emphatic victory with a series of spectacular goals.

For large spells of the first half, Celtic looked the better team, with Yang’s strike on 20 minutes coming after a brilliant Kieran Tierney pass that sliced through the Ajax back line. However, three goals in a 30-minute period in the second half meant last season’s Eredivisie runners-up booked their place in Sunday’s final against Como.

Speaking to Celtic TV post-match Rodgers said: “For the first 60 minutes of the game we were very good, and the third goal we gave away. We had lots of really good moments. Scored one and should have had more. The goal we scored was very good.”

“You can see that the players are working very hard and we’re pushing them in training,” he said.

“I just felt that in the last 30 minutes of the game, we gave the ball away too easily and we lost out on too many duels. Overall, there are lots of positives for us but also a reminder of the work we have to do.”

Celtic will now face Saudi Pro League side Al Ahli in Saturday evening’s 3rd/4th playoff match which will be the Scottish champions’ final game before they kickstart their league campaign a week on Sunday.

Rodgers added: “Al-Ahli have quality players. Players that are individually very good. As we know, they’ve spent a lot of money on top players. So it’s a really good game, and that was the whole idea of coming out.”

“We were going to get two really good games to finish pre-season. We seen that tonight, they tested us physically, technically and tactically and we’ll take a lot away from the game.”

Conor Spence

Read this – The backstory to Celtic in the Eighties by David Potter

Thank you to everyone who has already pre-ordered the late David Potter’s last ever Celtic book, Celtic in the Eighties, which will be published on the fifth day of September by Celtic Star Books. The link to pre-order your copy is below…