DON'T SLIP UP

Rodgers warns Celts' slack play will see them hit deck like he did at Hampden

- KEITH JACKSON

WHEN his Tom Fords slid beneath him inside Celtic’s technical area at Hampden on Saturday, Brendan Rodgers let out a laugh.

He was still smiling as he gave Kevin Clancy a cuddle even though the referee was waving a yellow card in his face.

But deep down there was a very serious reason behind the 51-year-old’s semi-final slip-up.

It all came about because he had spotted exactly the kind of slackness and sloppiness which might see his side being crucified in the killing fields of the Champions League by another bunch of big guns from the Bundesliga.

That’s why Rodgers lashed out at a stray ball bobbling towards his designer shoes.

It was an act born of sheer frustration.

And it’s why Celtic’s players will take to the field against RB Leipzig tonight with the same warnings ringing in their ears.

Rodgers was hammering it out again yesterday as he faced the media ahead of match day four – and explaining why he lost the rag even as his side eased past Aberdeen and into the first domestic final of the season at the weekend.

He said: “That’s the link to me getting booked at the weekend. As I said to the players, I’m always thinking about the bigger picture.

“If you’re loose with your passing domestically we might not get punished. But at this level, you will do. So be clean, be precise, play with speed on the ball.”

Rodgers has been around this particular block enough times to know that carelessness comes at an eye-watering cost.

When his players began to malfunction in Dortmund – and to lose that precision and composure from their play – they ended up on the end of such a hiding that it came into the category of humiliation.

Rodgers went on: “This is a team whose mindset is to improve and to be better. We knew we needed to be better after that game – me included.”