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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
Sport
Robbie Hanratty

Brendan Rodgers delighted to see Daizen Maeda thrive as Celtic frontman

Brendan Rodgers praised Celtic's "fantastic" performance as they eased past Hibernian in the Premier Sports Cup and set up a last-eight tie against Falkirk. 

Daizen Maeda starred by grabbing a brace while Nicolas Kuhn sealed the victory after Mykola Kukharevych temporarily reduced the deficit.

The result maintained the Hoops' unbeaten run, which stretches back to March 3.

Rodgers was delighted with his teams application and how they reduced Hibs to very few clear-cut opportunities.

"I thought we were very good," the Celtic manager beamed. "I thought we were excellent and from the start of the game, we showed our hunger. 

"We said before the game that our playmaker today will be our counter-pressing and our counter-pressing was there. We were winning so many second balls, third balls. Our only real danger today was from throw-ins because they've got guys on either side of the pitch that can throw it in and add a little bit of pressure and can make you fret a little bit when the balls coming in. But I thought we dealt well with that.


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"So we didn't give too much away. Their header was a great header so we don't have any complaints on that, maybe we can shift our wall back a little bit but overall the tempo of the game, the speed of the game and the quality in attacking moments was fantastic."

Maeda rewarded Rodgers by netting a first half brace and he impressed leading the line in Kyogo Furuhashi's absence. 

Discussing the forwards positive contribution, Rodgers said: "He's one that I have absolutely no doubt that he can play there. I've seen him a lot of him with Celtic, but I've also seen a lot of him with Japan. 

"He's played in a World Cup as a striker and in his two games for me as a striker he's scored five goals. He's got a hat-trick in Yokohama and he's got two today.

"His goals were very good, getting to the front post, which we want our striker's to do and running in behind, which we want them to do. So two very good goals."

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