Rodgers insists Celtic have restored their Champions League credibility despite agonising exit in Munich
Brendan Rodgers can’t look as Bayern’s late goal knocks them out of Europe .
Despite a heartbreaking elimination from the Champions League playoffs, Brendan Rodgers thinks Celtic has regained their reputation on the European scene.
Nicolas Kuhn, a former Bayern reserve, scored the game-winning goal on 63 minutes as Celtic, who needed to win in Germany at the 16th time of asking to overcome a 2-1 first-leg deficit, played bravely in the Allianz Arena.
Alphonso Davies, a substitute, scored a tenacious goal in the last minute of stoppage time to give the Germans a 3-2 aggregate victory just as it appeared that Rodgers’ team would force the six-time champions into extra time.
The Celtic manager was extremely proud of the performance that troubled the Bavarian giants, despite the fact that his team was brutally ousted.
Brendan Rodgers can’t look as Bayern’s late goal knocks them out of Europe
Alphonso Davies eliminates Celtic from the Champions League with a last-minute goal.
“We were always going to need European credibility this season,” he stated. That’s what I’ve learnt from this campaign’s ten games. Along the process, we picked up some important lessons. We have led a team this size and calibre all the way, and we have played some incredible football along the road.
Thus, that and all of its components enable us to construct. Even though we didn’t win the points last year, I believe I still thought we had grown. Performance-wise, I thought it was good.
This season has been excellent, in my opinion. We’ve made the strides that inspired me to return.
‘We’ve got two titles to go for. We want to get to the Champions League next season and look to build the squad again.
‘My unswerving plan is to make this a seasoned club at this level where we can go and really hurt big opponents like Bayern Munich.’
Rodgers claimed he could scarcely have asked more of his players as they came within a hair’s breadth of pulling off a monumental upset.
‘It’s a mixture of firstly pride in the performance level,’ he added. ‘We have to remember this is Bayern Munich and I think everyone had talked about that before the game and the challenges that we have here.
‘But I thought performance-wise we were outstanding in the game. We played without any fear, defended so well with discipline, pressed at the right moments, gave them issues on that side of the build-up and then were able to be compact and tight in the right moments and didn’t give away so much.
Nicolas Kuhn fires Celtic into a second-half lead at the Allianz Arena
“We created really, really good chances in the first half.” We have to defend a little bit harder in the second half, but we are aware of the strategy and concept.
“Then we get in front, and I felt like we deserved it.” Then, the only question was whether we could score the second goal, but it never seemed like we would give up the goal that we did. And we did, regrettably for us, right at the end.
“However, the guys gave it their all, and I can only be incredibly proud of the performance.”
Despite the inevitable sadness of leaving, Rodgers promised to remind his team that their heroic performance would have been admired throughout Europe.
“Yes, and it’s my responsibility to do that,” he continued.
“I think that after seeing what they put into the game and the occasion tonight, I was just really disappointed for them.” We have a team that will consider themselves very, very close to being finalists.
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