{"id":449108,"date":"2025-09-25T00:08:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T00:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/449108\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T00:08:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T00:08:12","slug":"celtic-boss-brendan-rodgers-reveals-reason-for-daizen-maeda-substitution-as-he-demands-europa-league-realism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/449108\/","title":{"rendered":"Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers reveals reason for Daizen Maeda substitution as he demands Europa League realism"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Japan ace was hooked at the break and replaced by goal hero Kelechi Iheanacho<\/p>\n

22:48, 24 Sep 2025Updated 23:30, 24 Sep 2025<\/p>\n

Brendan Rodgers insists there must be Euro realism after watching Celtic <\/a>kick off their Europa League campaign with a battling point in Belgrade.<\/p>\n

And the Irishman insists he has no fears over Daizen Maeda<\/a> despite hooking him at half-time for goal hero Kelechi Iheanacho.<\/p>\n

Iheanacho climbed off the bench at the break to break the deadlock<\/a> against Red Star Belgrade in the Serbian capital after replacing the ineffective Maeda.<\/p>\n

It could have been even better for the Hoops in the Marakana if they hadn’t met a keeper in inspired form with Brazilian shot-stopper Matheus keeping Celtic at bay, including a couple of point blank stops from Iheanacho.<\/p>\n

Celtic’s Daizen Maeda <\/p>\n

And the Premiership champions paid for that as the Serbians grabbed a leveller with Austrian hitman and former West Ham United striker Marko Arnautovic levelling.<\/p>\n

But was happy with the point with their next two games in the league phase both on home soil when they welcome Portuguese outfit Braga and Sturm Graz to Parkhead.<\/p>\n

And when asked if he was disappointed not to get the victory after dropping down to UEFA\u2019s second tier competition from the Champions League<\/a>, he said: \u201cThere needs to be a bit of realism. We are where we are and this is a good point.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou won\u2019t go and win all eight games. It\u2019s a realism. This is a good point for this group of players and for us coming here and we have two home games to really go and push forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will always be criticism but if you get a point in Belgrade against a team that\u2019s won seven out of seven we can only focus on ourselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve won all their domestic games, seven out of seven, and coming to Belgrade is always a tough game. We had great opportunities in the second half but showed great resilience and moments of quality – Kel\u2019s goal was absolutely outstanding.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had other moments in the second half. I still want us to be a little more proactive in the game but overall it was a nice first step for us in the competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

On his decision to take off Maeda, he explained: \u201cWe needed someone centrally to hold the ball up. I felt we arrived into the final third in the first half and were either loose with the ball or didn\u2019t hold it up.<\/p>\n

Kelechi Iheanacho scores<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s one of Kehl\u2019s great strengths, he can take the ball in and use his body well and it allows you to progress up the pitch so he gave us a much better platform in the second half.<\/p>\n

\u201cDaizen wasn\u2019t at his best, nowhere near it, but he\u2019s a good guy and sometimes that can happen in a game. I could have made a couple of changes at half time but I wanted to make that one to give us greater reference at the top of the pitch and Kel was very good for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Youngster Colby Donovan kept his starting place and Rodgers piled praise on the full back He said: “Colby was absolutely outstanding for a young player in his fourth or fifth start. To play at that level in a stadium like this – he\u2019s just turned 19.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got personality, not frightened of anything. He goes into the game, takes the ball, passes it forward, is aggressive, stops crosses and that\u2019s how he trains. He trains to that level every day so I\u2019m so, so happy for him.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Japan ace was hooked at the break and replaced by goal hero Kelechi Iheanacho 22:48, 24 Sep…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2352,2628,10110,1811,151145,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-449108","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-brendan-rodgers","9":"tag-celtic-fc","10":"tag-daizen-maeda","11":"tag-europa-league","12":"tag-red-star-belgrade","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115262030892359778","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}