FIND US ON TWITTER AND FACEBOOK
TOM ROGIC reckons his treble-winning heroics with Celtic helped him keep Australia’s World Cup bid on track in sensational style.
The 24-year-old followed up his dramatic Scottish Cup clinching strike against Aberdeen last month with a thunderbolt of a winner for the Socceroos against Saudi Arabia on Thursday.
Rogic’s 64th-minute stunner earned the Aussies a crucial 3-2 victory and hauled them level with their opponents and Japan in their World Cup qualifying group.
And the midfielder is convinced his invincible season at club level was behind his international impact.
Asked about his goal, he told Fox Sports: “It wasn’t bad! I thought it was coming.
“We started to get on top in the second-half and I just wanted to get the boys on the right way and we got the win, which was the most important thing.
“We made it a little difficult for ourselves in the first-half but we showed our quality and limited them in the second-half to not too many chances.
“It’s been fantastic. It’s always a different set-up coming into camp and always a proud moment.
“Coming in off the back of a good season, a successful one where you’re in a winning culture and you get used to winning trophies, it can’t but help here.”
MAGIC WORDS
Meanwhile, Socceroos boss Ange Postecoglou insisted the Celtic midfielder ‘owed’ his country one.
Postecoglou admitted his side had looked nervy in the first-half but was delighted to see Rogic deliver when needed in an improved performance after the break.
He said: “There were no magic words from me [at half-time]. The players were kicking themselves, they knew they were too anxious.
“The response was fantastic – it would have been easy to go into the shells given everything at stake. If anything it worked the other way.
“The second-half was very pleasing, very strong. It gives the players a great deal of encouragement of what we try to do.”
Asked about Rogic’s goal, he added: “It’s great watching him at Celtic, but he owes us one.”
