‘I NEED TO FIND THE SOLUTION,’ ADMITS RODGERS

BRENDAN RODGERS accepts it his responsibility to get Celtic firing again as he prepares for the Premiership visit of Motherwell on Sunday.

The controversial 2-0 Europa League loss to Sporting Braga at Parkhead last night was the fifth occasion in the past 12 games the champions have failed to score.

Coincidentally, that is the same amount of blanks in 57 games throughout the previous campaign.

It’s a mystifying situation and Rodgers said: “Whatever it is, I need to find the solution to it.

BY THE LEFT…Kelechi Iheanacho strikes what looked like Celtic’s equaliser against Sporting Braga – until the match officials ruled it out.

“There have been too many games now where we haven’t scored for a team that, last season, scored the most goals in the last 54 years in the club’s history.

“It’s my responsibility to find the solutions to that.

“We got into some good areas and the keeper made some good saves, but we still need to be more aggressive.”

Rodgers, speaking to the Scottish Sun, continued: “Late on, when you’re chasing the game, they break and they get the second goal after we failed to clear the box.

“So, it’s definitely frustrating that we didn’t get something from the game.

“You want to win your home games, but we can’t blame anyone but ourselves.

“We have Sturm Graz at home after the break and if we want to make any impact in this competition, we will have to win that game.”

Celtic’s cause against the Portuguese outfit wasn’t aided by the bizarre decision by VAR to rule out what looked like a perfectly good equaliser from Kelechi Iheanacho or an uncharacteristic howler from veteran keeper Kasper Schmeichel to gift the visitors the advantage in the 20th minute.

Braga captain Ricardo Horta, allowed far too much time and space by the Hoops’ malfunctioning midfield, tried his luck from 25 yards and his dipping effort completely bamboozled the flapping Danish legend.

The second and killer strike arrived in the 85th minute and young substitute Dane Murray didn’t cover himself in glory when he belted a clearance of Gabri Martinez and the ball ricochetted into the net.

Looking at the early breakthrough goal, Rodgers added: “Kasper will be really disappointed with it.

“It’s a good strike and it’s obviously moved a little bit, but I haven’t spoken to him about it.”