Manager: Players showed a lot of heart to get the victory

On a day of drama at Celtic Park, Brendan Rodgers’ side came out on top in a five-goal thriller against Motherwell thanks to a last-gasp winner from Daizen Maeda which gave the Hoops a 3-2 win. The manager was pleased with the victory and praised his players’ character as they came from behind to take all three points. Speaking to Celtic TV after the game, Brendan Rodgers said: “It was a very important win for us. The players showed a lot of heart and a lot of grit and a lot of determination. “You can see why Motherwell have gone unbeaten. Their build-up phase of the game is very good so you have to be really concentrated and organised but even then they can sometimes can break through it well. “But I think the players deserve a huge amount of credit because it’s not easy to play here, especially when you’re behind in the game. “The guys coming into the game made a big impact for us and we won through in the end, and I think deservedly so with the opportunities that we had, but it was still a very tough game. “When you’re still trying to find the level of performance that we would want, you still have to show a big heart and you have to dig out results, and that’s what we did today.“It’s been a tough start for us in a number of ways, on and off the pitch, but the one thing is that it hopefully can galvanise us, and I think the supporters will be proud of the players in terms of the heart they showed, and the spirit to keep going.” The Hoops go into the international break on the back of the win, which sees them sitting second in the table, two points behind Hearts. And the manager told the players after today’s game that they deserve credit for getting the victory over Motherwell. “I congratulated them because they need to understand, especially the new ones coming in, about how much of a challenging place this is to play – the expectation here and the demands at Celtic,” he said. “Some of the new players will have felt that, especially on a day like today when you go behind, but they also see the joy they can give to so many people. “So I said to them well done for that because it’s so important that you can grind out a result, especially on the back of a midweek game in the Europa League where we lost, but it’s a fantastic win for us.”FixturesCeltic Vs. Motherwell – Sun, Oct 5th 2025, 15:00