Christopher Jullien says he told Rangers striker Alfredo Morelos to keep up his antics during Sunday’s Glasgow derby.
The big Frenchman was imperious as the Hoops swept aside the Ibrox side and registered their first clean sheet in the fixture in a year.
Morelos was sent on during the second-half as Steven Gerrard’s men chased the game, but he offered little and was well marshalled by Jullien and the rest of the Celtic defence.
The big 6ft 5in central-defender had to deal with some crude challenges from the Colombian, but he took it all in his stride on his derby debut. In fact, he says he relished the physical challenge.
“It’s part of the game,” Jullien told STV. “If it’s a strength for him, I don’t know. I don’t know him so much.
“We talked about it before the game and I was told he was sometimes a bit like that.
“I told him to his face ‘I like that so keep going’. If we have a clean sheet then I did my job, so it’s all good.”
Jullien dealt efficiently with both Morelos and Defoe
Celtic fans should be massively encouraged by the way Jullien stood up to the challenge of Rangers during Sunday’s match. So much has been made of Ibrox forwards Jermain Defoe and Alfredo Morelos, but neither were given a kick by the experienced former Toulouse man.
He was assured right from the first minute until the last, something we haven’t always been able to say about our defenders in Govan. For all of Dedryck Boyata’s strong qualities, he was routinely found out against Rangers and cost us several goals with slack mistakes.
Even Filip Benkovic looked off the pace when he played in December’s defeat. But Jullien looked the polar opposite of those two, and that must be extremely encouraging for those of a Celtic persuasion.
Given the way Sunday’s meeting panned out, you can be sure that Morelos and Defoe aren’t relishing their next meeting with Celtic’s giant French wall.
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