Brendan Rodgers takes the 'blame' as Celtic boss admits 8 changes backfired with Falkirk bloody nose

Brendan Rodgers admitted his wholesale Celtic changes might have backfired after going to the bench to overturn a deficit in their 5-2 victory against Falkirk in the last eight of the Premier Sports Cup.

Keeper Kasper Schmeichel, skipper Callum McGregor and Reo Hatate were the only three survivors from Wednesday's 5-1 hammering of Slovan Bratislava in the Hoops' Champions League opener, with full back Alex Valle handed a debut and fellow summer signing Auston Trusty given his first start. But the Irishman's team went into the interval completely shellshocked, with goals from Falkirk's Ross MacIver and Finn Yeats coming either side of Paulo Bernardo's fine equaliser.

It wasn't until the introduction of Nicolas Kuhn and Arne Engels in a quadruple substitution on the hour mark that the Parkhead giants finally gained total control of the game to put down their spirited opponents and set up a Hampden semi-final with Aberdeen. First, Kuhn teed up Adam Idah twice to complete Celtic's turnaround before grabbing a brace himself to put the tie out of the Championship side's reach.

Debutant Valle was one of the players to be hooked early after struggling up against impressive Bairns winger, but boss Rodgers insists the blame for his team's lacklustre start lies with him. Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland, he said: "The game was close.

"If there's any blame on the performance for the first hour or so, it's on me, not the players. I make eight changes and of course there's going to be a little bit of disconnection.

"But we bring on the guys that have been playing, and straight away in the final 30 minutes, the fluidity is at a really high level, so we can create and score goals. We ended up finishing the game really well.

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