Rodgers quick to cool chat of Celtic reaching Europa decider

CELTIC manager Brendan Rodgers has warned that talk of making the Europa League final is completely premature.

The Scottish champions open their group campaign against Rosenborg in Glasgow on Thursday after dropping down from the Champions League.

After two years of facing up to some major challenges in Europe’s elite competition, Celtic fans are eyeing a lengthy run in the lesser tournament. But Rodgers is not getting ahead of himself.

“I see lots of stories and reports about us getting to the final,” he admitted. “That’s a long, long, long way away. You only have to look at the teams and the calibre of club and financial resources in this competition and that tells you that is a long, long way away.

“However, it’s the group stages and we have earned the right to be there and now we have to fight to show we can come out of the group stage.”

The likes of Arsenal, AC Milan, Chelsea and Sevilla are also in the group stage and eight teams will drop down from the Champions League.

And Rodgers insists comparisons with Celtic’s run to the Uefa Cup final in 2003 are difficult to make.

“I just think in terms of where football was then, where it was for Celtic then, is totally different to where it’s at now,” said Rodgers, who has targeted a 10-point total from a group also featuring Salzburg and RB Leipzig. “Celtic were taking players out of the top end of the Premier League, so that tells you where they were as a club in terms of finance and that sort of ambition really.

“Now we are not any less ambitious but of course the football economics have changed totally.”

Celtic knocked Rosenborg out of the Champions League qualifiers this year and last year and Rodgers hopes for even better against the Norwegians.

“The difference here is we are a lot further ahead in terms of our fitness,” he said. “We hope there will be a great crowd.”