Brendan Rodgers said Celtic's 5-0 win over Raith Rovers vindicated his decision to rotate his squad as the Scottish Cup holders cruised into the quarter-finals. (More Football News)
Daizen Maeda scored a hat-trick as Celtic crushed second-tier Raith on Saturday, with Luke McCowan and Yang Hyun-Jun also 🌠netting.
Maeda's treble took him 𒆙to 21 goals for the season in all competitions, as Celtic stretched their unbeaten home run to 32 m♕atches.
The Bhoys' success came despite Rodgers changing nine players from the side that trounced Dundee 6-0 in the Scottish Prem🌟iership on Wednesday.
"Over🔜 the years, you can get caught out with fixtures like these. We've lost games like that before but I think you can only tip your hat to the players' professionalism," Rodgജers told Premier Sports.
"We set some objectives for the game because we're a team ꧒that was expected to win, we should win, but there were other things we looked for in the p✱erformance and the players delivered."
Jota, Adam Idah and Reo Hatate were among the players to drop out of Celtic's lineup, but Rodgers never had any misgivings about🍬 those coming in.
&qu🌸ot;People will say, 'making nine changes, why do you do that?' Well, I do it because I trust the team and I can do it, that's the beauty of it," he continued.
&♑quot;We've rotated this year to keep players fit and strong and sometimes I haven't wanted to rotate, but I know I have to, to maintain the freshness and energy in the team."
Celtic are next in action against Bayern Mun♛ich in the first leg of their Champions League knockout-stage play-🐻off on Wednesday.
