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Dinamo Zagreb boss Nenad Bjelica has admitted that Celtic imposed themselves on his side with their possession-based game on Tuesday evening.
Celtic faced Croatian giants Dinamo Zagreb away from home in their sixth game in the Champions League league stage on Tuesday night.
Brendan Rodgers’ men managed to secure one point from the game with a 0-0 scoreline, which helped to boost their hopes of sealing a spot in the playoff round.
Bjelica indicated that Celtic ruined the way he wanted his team to play by imposing themselves on his team with their possession game in the first half, but thinks that his side did well not to allow the Bhoys defenders to penetrate deep in their area.
He claimed that despite Celtic dominating the game in the first half, Dinamo Zagreb were the team that made more concrete chances with dangerous counter-attacks.
“I was looking for the same thing in both the first and second half, but sometimes the opponents impose themselves in possession”, Bjelica was quoted as saying by Dinamo Zagreb’s official site.
“They imposed themselves; maybe we didn’t control their defenders and the last midfielder well.
“In the second half, we no longer allowed their defenders to penetrate deep into our field, thus reducing the space, or rather the distances we had to run on the counter-attack.
“We were dangerous on several counter-attacks and had more concrete chances.
“But, from the first minute, we wanted to play like we did in some phases of the second half.”
Celtic will now turn their focus on their weekend’s fixture against their arch-rivals, Rangers, in the Scottish League Cup final, which the Bhoys will be eager to win to bag the first silverware of the domestic season.
