Inside 'angry' Celtic dressing room at Easter Road as Hibs poser met with bullish answer

Honest Arne Engels has revealed angry Celtic stars were fuming with the first-half flop at Hibs.

And the honest Belgian is clear his team will never hunt excuses after suffering their rare title slip. As the champions headed out of Easter Road defeated, Brendan Rodgers’ troops had justifiable reasons to claim mitigating circumstances. Naturally, the controversial chalking-off of a late Daizen Maeda strike dominated post-match discussions. Had the Japanese’s attacker smart finish been allowed to stand, it is impossible to deny that Celtic could have even gone on and won.

Of course, the fact Rodgers' men were still chasing the game at that advanced stage was down to the poor opening-period performance. By the high standards they have set, the champions were miles off it during that wayward first half, yet, once again, an excuse was right there at their disposal if they wanted it in the shape of Munich.

To most outside of the Celtic dressing room, Rodgers’ team could have passed off their sluggish Edinburgh start given the savage exertions of their Champions League clash against Bayern in Bavaria beforehand. The energy-sapping 90-minutes in the game’s highest-octane tournament and the crushing pain of their late exit, never mind the travel.

But Engels wasn’t having it. There was no attempt to absolve responsibility for the opening period as he outlined the mood amongst the group as they reassembled at the interval staring down a 2-0 deficit.

He said: “Of course everybody was angry at the team performance. But nobody was screaming or something because we knew we had a second-half to go and try to get the equaliser and the winning goal. You saw us pushing, pushing to the limit. We are disappointed, especially with the first