Rodgers acknowledges lack of creativity in cup win

Brendan Rodgers was pleased to see his side book their place in the Scottish Cup semi-final after a 3-0 win over Championship side Morton at Celtic Park earlier today.

The Hoops upped their game after a lacklustre first half, with striker Moussa Dembele opening the scoring with a fine header thanks to a great cross from Tom Rogic.

The Frenchman then got his brace after converting a controversial penalty that he himself won.

Fellow French forward Odsonne Edouard, who came on for the second-half, rounded things off shortly before the end with a good finish.

In his post-match interview with the media, Rodgers gave his thoughts on how the game played out and acknowledged his side’s lack of creativity, while also singling out both Dembele and Edouard for their contribution:

It was a very tricky tie for us, especially with the week we’ve had. I think our lack of training time showed in the first half.

We weren’t up to our standard really in terms of our intensity, pressing and creativity but we also have to give credit to Greenock Morton because they showed good organisation, had some good players in their team an I thought they played really well.

I wanted to change it at half-time for the second half. I think Odsonne made a huge difference to the game. I changed the shape of the team and we had much better control and intensity in the second half.

I thought Odsonne was very, very good. He’s a young player I rate very highly. He can play in a number of positions and his link up and hold up play was very good. I felt Odsonne and Dembele occupied the back four very well.

I think you can see he [Dembele] has that hunger back to score. In the second half, like the rest of the team, he was much better.

It was a good header, he has the composure and his link up play was much better. It was unfortunate the ball wouldn’t sit for him in the second half to get his hat-trick.

I have in my mind the team for next week but we’ll do some work. This week was really difficult. Hopefully this coming week we’ll get some good work in.

So far only Celtic have booked their place in the last four with Kilmarnock and Aberdeen drawing 1-1. Motherwell take on Hearts while Rangers take on Falkirk in tomorrow’s other two Scottish Cup quarter-final games.

The Hoops take on Glasgow opposition Rangers next Sunday and prepare to make it four wins out of four at Ibrox under Rodgers.

Kick-off is at 12.00 with the match being shown live on Sky Sports.