GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - SEPTEMBER 22: Celtic's Arne Engels and Falkirk manager John McGlynn during a Premier Sports Cup quarter-final match between Celtic and Falkirk, at Celtic Park, on September 22, 2024, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Craig Williamson/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Celtic’s win over Falkirk in the League Cup is still being spoken about his week as Brendan Rodgers’ side look forward to another trip to Hampden in November.
The 5-2 victory was a hard-fought one and one that the Celtic boss says he will take full blame for after the home side’s subpar performance.
Rodgers made eight changes to the Celtic team that defeated Slovan Bratislava just four days earlier and, to be fair, it showed.
Falkirk took advantage of that with a fine display of attacking and pressing football but, in the end, Celtic’s quality shone through after Rodgers made four changes on the 70th-minute mark.
All four subs made an immediate impact but Falkirk captain, Coll Donaldson was just happy that one player wasn’t called upon by the Celtic boss.
The ‘nightmare’ that is Celtic striker Kyogo Furuhashi
Rodgers called upon Arne Engels, Nicolas Kuhn, Hyunjun Yang and Greg Taylor to reverse the 2-1 deficit for Celtic.
And whilst the changes had a devastating impact, Donaldson was just happy the Celtic boss didn’t throw on Kyogo Furuhashi as well.
Donaldson said The Big Scottish Football Podcast, “Well, Kyogo was still warming up. So Kyogo was the one that I was like, oh please, just didn’t bring him on.
Like he’s a nightmare, Kyogo, rapid, like a good finisher.
67 Hail Hail has already discussed this afternoon about Kyogo’s changing role at the club after Adam Idah admitted he is learning from the Japanese striker.
The experience he has in Europe with Celtic and winning trophies domestically coupled with his international caps makes Kyogo the perfect player to learn from but as Donaldson points out, his pace and finishing are the scourge of the opposition.
At 29, the Japanese striker’s experience wasn’t required against Falkirk on Sunday but what is encouraging is that in his absence, Celtic have a striker in Idah who is more than capable of carrying the goalscoring burden.
