Sunday 25 February 2018 17:39, UK
Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers praised the resilience of his players after overcoming the disappointment of their European exit by defeating Aberdeen 2-0 at Pittodrie.
The Scottish Premiership leaders moved back nine points clear of Rangers at the summit with a 10th successive win over the Dons courtesy of strikes from Moussa Dembele and Kieran Tierney.
In a hotly-contested encounter, both sides ended up with 10 men after Mikael Lustig and Sam Cosgrove were dismissed but Celtic showed their powers of recovery to return to winning ways following their 3-1 aggregate defeat by Zenit St Petersburg in the Europa League.
"I thought it was a brilliant win for ourselves," Rodgers said. "We're 72 hours back from Russia, arguably the toughest place to come away from, and to have an away game so soon afterwards is tough. I thought we dealt with everything really well though.
"The first goal was a really great example of our players' technical qualities on a really difficult surface. It was a great goal, good passing and movement and a great header by Moussa."
"We had more chances and in the first half and we controlled things. We showed real resilience and mentality to manage the game when we went down to 10 men and score a brilliant counter-attacking goal.
"I'm really proud of the team, it's always going to be a really tough game here. We know the signpost of where we want to go and today was a fantastic win for us."
Celtic can still complete a domestic treble; having already collected the League Cup, they face Greenock Morton in the Scottish Cup quarter-finals next weekend and they made light work of keeping Aberdeen at bay in their quest to catch them at the top of the Scottish Premiership.
But despite the hosts missing key players Graeme Shinnie and Ryan Christie, Rodgers feels his side have taken a major step to retaining the domestic title for a seventh successive season.
The former Liverpool manager was pleased with the reaction of Scott Brown to Cosgrove's reckless challenge on him in the closing stages, and Rodgers believes his overall performance played a crucial role in ensuring the points returned to Glasgow.
"He's [Brown] a big game player, especially in those moments when we go down to 10 men he revels in it even more.," Rodgers added. "Like he is in the big games, he's an absolutely brilliant leader."
"It was a naughty challenge on him by the boy who got sent off. But he bounces back up again. He's a real player of dominance in the big games and he showed it again today."
