A brave Celtic were downed by a Morgan Rogers hat-trick at Villa Park on Wednesday night in the Champions League.
This was the final game of the Champions League group phase, with Celtic already in the play-offs, and heading to the Midlands with an outside chance of securing a top-eight finish.
But, inside five minutes, Rogers had netted a brace and Brendan Rodgers would have been having flashbacks of Borussia Dortmund.
It was the worst possible start, but the Bhoys fought back, with Adam Idah netting a quick-fire double and heading into the half-time break level.
But given Celtic’s weak squad, because of injuries, players leaving recently and suspensions, the team couldn’t cope with Aston Villa’s added quality.
At the end of the day, Unai Emery was able to bring boyhood Celtic fan John McGinn off the bench and leave Jhon Duran, who is expected to make a big-money move to Saudi Arabia, on the bench.
Morgan Rogers reacts to Aston Villa’s ‘crazy’ game against Celtic
You do think if Jota was up to speed, Daizen Maeda was available and even Cameron Carter-Vickers wasn’t injured, then this could have been a different outcome, but in the circumstances, there was serious fight and something to be proud of.
Rogers labelled it as a ‘crazy’ game and how netting a hat-trick against Celtic in Europe’s elite competition was probably ‘the highlight of my career so far’, as he told CBS.
But Idah brought it back to 2-2, the England international admitted that ‘we knew we were going to create chances’ after Celtic’s ‘five-minute’ spell.
“It’s probably the highlight of my career so far,” said Rogers on scoring a hat-trick against Celtic. “It’s a crazy experience. A crazy atmosphere and a crazy game.
“It’s something we had to address (starting games better). We start games behind and give ourselves a mountain to climb. That’s something we have to work on and the next bit of it as well, like when they came back into the game. Like West Ham did at the weekend.
On what Villa needed to do after Celtic’s fightback: “Just to keep going,” added Rogers. “I felt we were on top for a large majority. They probably had a five-minute spell where they scored two goals. That’s what changed the game. But if we keep doing what we were doing. We knew we were going to create chances for fun and we did that in the second half. Probably should have scored a few more. I thought we were really good throughout. Just that five-minute spell where they scored two goals, which we need to cut out.”
Rogers on Celtic’s away fans
The Celtic faithful travelled in their numbers, just over 2,000 packed the away end at Villa Park and you can bet your bottom dollar many more would have gone down.
Yes, that opening five minutes would have ripped the energy out of everyone in green and white colours, but it wouldn’t be too long before Idah’s magic was having them bounce in the stands like crazy.
Rogers noted Celtic’s away end when the two goals went in and how he has ‘never’ seen anything like it, as he told Aston Villa’s YouTube channel.
“Yeah, mad, surreal,” responded Rogers on walking out at Villa Park against Celtic. “It probably tops the Bayern game. I reckon so because that away end, especially when they got them two goals back, I have never seen an away end like that since I have been here.
“I love it, the more noise, I love it, especially when our backs are against it. Our fans are a bit quieter than theirs and it’s down to us to lift them again. I put that pressure on myself.”
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