Celtic missed a chance to move 11 points clear at the top of the Scottish Premiership table on Saturday, drawing 1-1 with Motherwell at Celtic Park.
A David Turnbull penalty opened the scoring for the home side after 86 minutes of frustration, sparking jubilant scenes.
Sadly, Motherwell had a sting in the tail and took one of their only chances in the game to score from a corner through Jonathan Obika.
It leaves Celtic on 36 points from 14 matches in the Premiership which, while impressive, means that second-placed Rangers can cut the gap to just three points if they win games in hand – one of which is tomorrow.
Celtic boss on the Motherwell draw
After the match, Rodgers was clearly disappointed and told BBC Radio Scotland: “We had enough opportunities to win the game. I thought Motherwell defended well deep in the game, we had over 80% of possession. We had enough of the ball, but we maybe didn’t create as much as we’d like. Still, the opportunities that we had were good opportunities.
“We had two penalties in the game, they are decisive moments along with the corner. So you want to see them through and unfortunately, we weren’t able to do that.”
Missed penalties this season irk Brendan Rodgers
Asked about the three penalties that Celtic have missed this season, with Luis Palma missing from the spot prior to Turnbull’s finish, the manager said: “It’s something we’ve spoken on and actually worked on. It’s about taking that into the game and being decisive with it. It’s something we have to continually work on, they are pressure moments.
“We’re disappointed not to score the first one. David scores the second one well and that gives a foot up in the game. We then controlled the game for the period after that which is good but then we gave away the corner and we couldn’t defend it.”
Reflecting on dropped Celtic points
And finally, reflecting on more dropped points at home, Rodgers concluded: “They are games we should win. They are games I would expect us to win. But you have to win them and earn that with quality and that little extra bit of finesse in the final third. We didn’t quite have that today. We circulated the ball well and got into good areas but couldn’t find that pass or touch that allows us to score.
“We have to recover. It’s disappointing today to drop two points. It always feels like a defeat when you’re at home and you draw. But we have to take that motivation into our next game.”
Celtic now have a massive test away to Lazio on Tuesday night before returning to league action away to Craig Levein’s St Johnstone next weekend. It doesn’t get any easier after today, certainly.
Today should have been a match that sets the champions up nicely for a demanding period, but the draw means there’s now more pressure on some difficult domestic tests prior to the winter break.
In other news, Brendan Rodgers definitively explains the transfer process at Celtic, why Mark Lawwell is needed.
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