What Brendan Rodgers told his Celtic players at half-time to punish Slovan Bratislava in Champions League

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Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers will be one of the most satisfied men in the country on Thursday after watching his Bhoys team thrash Slovan Bratislava in the Champions League.

The Scottish champions were in electric form against their Slovakian counterparts, producing a five-star performance to rout the visitors 5-1 at Celtic Park.

It was a complete team performance. Off the ball, Celtic were relentless in winning back possession and, when they did, had the ruthlessness and quality to punish the visitors.

There were five different goalscorers with Liam Scales, Kyogo Furuhashi, Daizen Maeda, Arne Engels and Adam Idah all putting their names in lights.

The Bhoys went into the interval just 1-0 up but came out in the second half to blow Slovan Bratislava away.

Brendan Rodgers’ half-time Celtic team talk in Champions League

Asked what he told his player at that midway point to go on and win the game so comfortably, Rodgers told TNT Sport: “We just reiterated we don’t have to do anything special. Just be us. Just play our game, don’t complicate the game.

“There were a couple of things around the positioning. When we took the ball to one side and went the other side back again our positioning just wasn’t quite there, which meant we would play sideways or backwards instead of being able to play forwards.

“There were just a couple of elements like that, but also reinforcing a lot of the really good pressing elements.”

The ‘wow’ verdict as Celtic thump Slovan Bratislava

It’s fair to say the advice of the coaching staff paid off. Rodgers’ overall verdict on the match was glowing.

He continued: “The second half, wow. Just the greed of the players, the hunger, the pressing, the counter-pressing – just the mentality of the team. I was so proud and the quality of the goals was sensational.

“In a lot of the teams I have, the goal contribution is shared throughout because we don’t want to put the burden on any one player. The guys are very clear in what they have to do.

“It’s such a selfless group, they set each other up and it’s all about the quality of the delivery and the guys delivered it so well.”

It’s fantastic to hear the manager positively buzzing about the direction of the team and with blockbuster fixtures ahead in Europe, it’s exciting to think of what he will get the team to produce next.