Congratulations to Brendan Rodgers and well done to his Celtic team. They gave him everything in Bergamo and had clearly learned their lesson from the nightmare in Dortmund a couple of weeks ago. I had genuine fears that his Celtic side were going to get another hammering in Italy if they opted to go toe-to-toe with the free scoring Atalanta outfit.
However, this was a different Celtic mindset. He kept the back four and midfield tight together and closed the gaps from Germany. There was no schools football, you have a go and we will have a go. This was Brendan asking his players to give him every ounce of energy in a structured defensive manner. Yes, they rode their luck, but every team needs that.
When Kasper Schmeichel needed to step up he did. The Celtic goalkeeper speaking to TNT sports admitted they had to learn lessons from Dortmund. ” We took a few less chances in the build up because of their man to man system and we tried to exploit that. A couple of times it worked but it’s always going to be difficult coming away from home in Europe against a system that is so aggressive but, I thought we did alright.”
Schmeichel popped up with a couple of crucial saves and he’ll be the first to admit they had good fortune with the bar coming to their rescue on one occasion.
I criticised Brendan for his approach to this campaign. I firmly believe that he was brought back to make an impact in Europe. Good managers become even better at their job by learning how to defeat stronger opponents with different strategies and tactics. I feared Brendan’s plan A was the only one he had, until tonight. He’s quite clearly learned a lesson on other ways to get positive results against better opponents.
Speaking to TNT sports, he freely admitted he’s still learning. “Each day of my life I’m learning, to my very last breath. That’s the type of person I am. That’s what allows you to springboard even further than where you were. You think of the Borussia Dortmund feeling, after that we didn’t want that again in the changing room and that has allowed us that trampoline effect to push on.”
A 0-0 in Italy has to be celebrated and that point could be massive at the end of this new qualification format for the knockout stages. Major shareholder, Dermot Desmond revealed in an interview this month that he thought a couple more home wins and maybe nick a point here and there could be enough to see Celtic through. Tonight wasn’t a point nicked, it was a point hard fought for and the credit for that is down to the players and a manager who proved that he is more than capable of learning lessons, changing and adapting to the challenges he faces.
Well done Brendan. Lesson learned!
