Rodgers unfazed despite huge Valencia task

CELTIC’S perpetual conundrum was highlighted once more as Brendan Rodgers and his players prepared for tonight’s visit by Valencia in the first leg of their

Europa League tie in the round of 32.

The club’s interim financial results showed £15 million (€17m) profit and £38.6m (€44m) in the bank, even allowing for a revenue drop of £21.5m (€25m) because of a failure to extend their Champions League groupstage qualification record to three successive seasons.

That decline was offset by £28m (€32m) from the sales of Moussa Dembele to Lyon and Stuart Armstrong to Southampton.

Armstrong’s departure allowed Ryan Christie to break into the first team to such effect that the transition was almost seamless. Dembele’s absence was much more difficult to address but the response was an imaginative stroke in the form of the loan deal which brought Oliver Burke from West Brom last month.

It will take a mighty jump in game awareness for Burke to put the frighteners on Valencia, who are undefeated in seven appearances, with a clean sheet in each.

Celtic have won just seven of 30 UEFA competition games against Spanish opposition, all of those successes coming in Glasgow.

“I would hate to say getting past Valencia is a measure of success because then you have another round,” Rodgers (above) said.

“You always have to believe that you can win every game.”

Celtic v Valencia, Live, VM Sport/BT Sport 3, 8.0