Despite the praise and acclamation Brendan Rodgers wasn’t satisfied by Celtic’s Champions League draw.
Sixty thousand fans and a global television audience in the millions thrilled to that tie that Celtic led three times as they struck fearlessly at the English table toppers. Recent results would suggest that Pep’s side have still to recover.
Celtic were praised from all quarters with the performance on the pitch matching the atmosphere generated from the stands.
English viewers had their eyes opened by Moussa Dembele and wondered how their biggest clubs had missed out on a talent on their doorstep.
After losing 7-0 in Barcelona Rodgers’ tactics were justified as he demonstrated that Celtic’s attacking flair could create and score goals against one of the richest teams ever put together.
Despite all that the Irishman regretted the fact that his side had only collected a point from a match that his side led three times.
“It’s now all about getting the first win at this level- that was the only disappointment of the Man City game for me,” Rodgers explained.
“I sat at the end of it and everybody was raving, but I wanted to win the game. We were in the lead three times and there were two goals we shouldn’t have conceded, but that’s because we are trying to raise the bar.”
Rodgers added: “A win against Gladbach would work well for us now. We always felt if we could be in European football after Christmas then that would be a fantastic achievement.
“The players have made great strides in a very short time. In terms of the development of the players, this competition was always going to help us, and against Man City the performance was of a very high level.
“We showed we can compete at this level — now we have to back that up. Wednesday night will be another great game, and again we have to set the tone for the supporters, just like we did against City.”
A win tonight would put Celtic four points clear of Gladbach meaning that the Germans would need to take something from their games against Barcelona and Manchester City, as well as beating Celtic at home, to take third place from the hoops.
