‘Bring on the weekend’ - Celtic star looks forward to Rangers clash after win at Ross County

A win was all that matters for Celtic star Jota after his side came through a tough challenge at Ross County to move a step closer to retaining the Premiership title.

After being given a severe test throughout the majority of the first-half, Ange Postecoglou’s side men took a narrow lead into half-time thanks to a Jota penalty that was awarded following a VAR review for a handball by hosts captain Alex Iacovitti. County had some promising moments during the second 45 minutes but it was Celtic that secured the points in injury-time when Alexandro Bernabei crashed home a stunning strike to rack up his first goal for the club.

Speaking after the game, Jota admitted his side faced the ‘tough match’ they were expecting but insisted getting the win, rather than putting in a strong performance, was the most important aspect of the day.

He told Sky Sports: “We knew that every time we come here, always, (it is) a tough match to play. They always go deep so we just need to find the spaces in-between lines and those type of spaces to score the goals. Today was another difficult one but in the end the team were really good. It (the first goal) definitely gave us some rest and then we just had to get to half-time to rethink what we did and go into the second-half to make better things. Then we just tried to control the game in the second-half. They got there sometimes, but we got more goals and that’s what counts.”

Hoops defender Cameron Carter-Vickers admitted his side weren’t at their best during the win and praised their hosts for their hard work before swiftly turning his attentions towards preparations for next weekend’s home clash with Rangers.

“They (Ross) made the game difficult for us and I don’t think we had great control of the game. The good thing about this group is even when we aren’t at our best, we still find ways to score goals. You give credit to them because they’re well-organised, they worked hard. We know next week is a big game, we have a week’s training, we’ll be right at it through the week and then bring on the weekend.”