“It had everything that I would want – full of desire and energy,” Brendan Rodgers

The Celtic Star

·20 September 2024

“It had everything that I would want – full of desire and energy,” Brendan Rodgers

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers reflected on his side’s emphatic Champions League victory over Slovan Bratislava this afternoon when he spoke to the media ahead of Sunday’s League Cup quarter-final against Falkirk at Celtic Park…

Brendan, like the rest of us, is still buzzing after that brilliant 5-1 win and reckons that the team will have an additional layer of confidence as they progress in the competition.

“Firstly, the performance was outstanding. It had everything that I would want – full of desire and energy. Then, the energy from the stadium was absolutely incredible. That combination is a real force and we seen that in the game.

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Brendan Rodgers arrives at the stadium prior to the UEFA Champions League 2024/25 match between Celtic and SK Slovan Bratislava at Celtic Park on September 18, 2024. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

“It was an outstanding performance, and it had everything that I would want from one of my teams. The only thing missing was a couple more goals!” Brendan said.

“It can give us another layer of confidence. We’ve started performing really well with the intent in our game. Everything on that front domestically has been good. You take that into the Champions League and being able to do it at that level is also particularly pleasing, because no matter what is said, every team that plays in the Champions League is there believing that they are a big team.

Nicolas Kuhn, Celtic v Slovan Bratislava. Photo Andrew Milligan

“Obviously, there are some more prestigious teams than others, because of history, but every club that enters that competition has done well. You know when you’re playing these teams that you’ve got to perform. For us to play at that level with that pressure was something that didn’t surprise me – we coped with pressures last season – so that’s continued as a learning curve going into the other night.

“It felt like a really special occasion, and I said before the game that I felt ready going into this competition this year – more-so than any other time – and you can see that in the team and how they played.”

On injuries, Alistair Johnston didn’t train today and there’s a few doubts for the weekend.

“Yeah, we’ve got a few players with niggles so we’ll have a wee look at that and assess that by the end of play tomorrow. We won’t take any risks on players.

“This was the second day of recovery as well – we had a group recovering, a group outside training hard, and then another one or two inside just making extra recovering inside rather than out,” the Celtic manager confirmed.

Sky Sports had a decent video on this earlier today, see below…

🍀 Celtic are training ahead of Sunday's return to domestic action with a League Cup tie vs Falkirk. How many changes will Brendan Rodgers make from Wednesday's Champions League win? ⬇️
– Friday, 20 September 2024

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“It had everything that I would want – full of desire and energy,” Brendan Rodgers | OneFootball