Brendan Rodgers shares what he told his players after Rangers defeat in apology to Celtic fans

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Celtic fans are still smarting from losing to Rangers for the second Glasgow Derby in a row this season.

The Hoops support thought a win was on the cards as Celtic battled back from 2-0 down only to watch poor finishing and shambolic defending allow Rangers to steal a last-minute win.

Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic starting XI was hampered by a triple-injury blow as the Hoops boss had to make a Glasgow Derby reshuffle to accommodate the loss of Callum McGregor, Liam Scales and Auston Trusty.

However, those changes proved fruitless Celtic succumbed to another Glasgow Derby defeat and Brendan Rodgers has revealed what he told his players in an apology to the fans.

• READ MORE: Rangers duo could face SFA ban for daft behaviour in the Celtic Park Glasgow Derby

Brendan Rodgers tells Celtic fans what his players ‘spoke about’ after Rangers defeat

Rodgers told Celtic TV, “Firstly, the message to the supporters is, we apologise because we always want to win games here and against our big rivals, so, for them, it’s not a great feeling.

“Our message to the players is, we have to be much better. That’s what we spoke about afterwards.

“In every facet of the game we have to be much better and if you’re going to be a champion this year, you’ve got to go and show that you’re a champion and you’ve got to earn it.

“So there are eight games to go, with 13 points [advantage], but we’ve got a lot of big games to play.”

What the Celtic players need to realise despite being on the brink of a treble

In the grand scheme of the season, the defeat to Rangers will not determine whether or not Celtic will win the league or affect the club’s treble bid.

However, losing to Rangers and doing so with such a poor first-half performance is simply unacceptable. With the gap between Celtic and Rangers so large off the pitch, it does not look good to see the teams being so close on it.

With three goals conceded in the last three derby games, Rodgers needs to address this before the Ibrox trip next month because if Celtic lose again, serious questions will be asked of the players heading into the new season whether a treble is won or not.