Brendan Rodgers wasn’t quite sure what to feel after Celtic’s 1-1 draw away to Borussia Monchengladbach.
The manager inside the Irishman was disappointed at dropping two points from a winnable match while the coach was thrilled by the development of his players.
Matching both emotions isn’t easy but coping with them is a better feeling than the frustrations of a 2-0 home defeat when no one has did themselves justice.
Reaching the group phase was the target for this season but as he previewed the match in Germany Rodgers painted a picture of improvement that would see Celtic challenging and reaching the last 16 on a regular basis.
Without a sizeable transfer kitty the former Liverpool boss has to develop players ready to play at the highest level and although they had contrasting experiences on the night Stuart Armstrong, Callum McGregor and Liam Henderson all discovered the level they have to compete at.
Reflecting on the 90 minutes Rodgers said: “I’m disappointed we didn’t win the game. I thought we were the best team.
“I’m really proud of the players because I said them that, in order for us to improve, we needed to play with personality and the personality we showed in the game was outstanding.
“We were very brave on the ball and opened up the pitch to play. We built the game and secured the game created chances with real speed on the counter attack and we had chances to win.”
Rodgers added: “I thought some of our link-up play, some of the combination play to create the possibilities, was excellent but that result was no more that we deserved, I felt.
“It was an outstanding team performance and the beginning for us, really, at this level in terms of the personality we need to play with.
“What was important for us was to get some sort of result but I said to the players beforehand that win lose or draw I wanted us to play the way we know we can.
“I wanted to show we can come away to a really tough place in Europe and perform. So for me they deserve a huge amount of credit.”
