The international break is in full swing but Celtic’s win over Rangers in last weekend’s Glasgow Derby is still on Peter Grant’s mind.
The 3-0 hammering of our Glasgow rivals put Celtic five points clear of Rangers at the top of the Scottish Premiership heading into the two-week break and the fans on cloud nine.
And as comprehensive as the victory was, Peter Grant has shared what he thought was the biggest thing about the win starting with praise of Celtic midfielder, Paulo Bernardo‘s performance.
Paulo Bernardo was ‘excellent’ vs Rangers
The Portuguese midfielder was a huge influence in two of the derbies last season and now back at Celtic permanently, Bernardo has picked up where he left off.
Grant to the Official Celtic FC Podcast, “Simon [Donnelly] touched on it about Bernardo.
“I thought he was excellent. And the biggest thing for me at the weekend was, not necessarily with the ball, how many players were around the ball if they gave possession away? And it didn’t matter what player gave it away.
“There was no throwing their hands up in the air or moaning about somebody giving the ball away. They just reacted and won the ball back quickly, but it wasn’t one or two.
“But I thought Bernardo was brilliant at that, especially in the first half, if you remember, when there was one in the box here.
“He just nicked it, didn’t he? He could easily have given away a penalty, but he reacted to it all of a sudden. And that’s what you need for your players because that sparks everybody else.
“It sparks the crowd.”
Celtic’s ball-winning vs Rangers the ‘biggest thing’ about the win
On top of Bernardo’s performance, Grant highlighted one thing Celtic did against Rangers that left him extremely impressed.
Grant continued, “People used to say, if somebody else wins the ball back after someone’s given it away, the quicker they win it back it doesn’t even give the supporters a chance to go, ‘Oh, you’ve given the ball away’ because they’ve already reacted to the positive move of the team.
“And I think that was the biggest thing for me at the weekend. And that is very difficult to get. But see when you get good players working as hard as they are, it’s a fantastic thing to watch.”
Celtic’s press has been relentless this season and it is reminiscent of the type of press the fans were used to watching under Ange Postecoglou.
But as well as that, how Celtic have started every domestic game this season so far has also blown away the competition.
Early goals in the opening five league and cup games have set a precedence and it seems that this could be a big feature of Celtic’s play this season.
If that can be replicated and carried over into the Champions League campaign, then the next few months could be really exciting for the Celtic fans.
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