TALKING CELTIC

s s b’s otball he nd, e tish football,”footba said Rodgers whe when it was put to him that not everyone in t the country believed hi his team’s qualification to the group st stage was w worthy of an e entire nation re rejoicing. “W “We have to fly th the flag for Sco Scotland. Wh What is im- portant is that we represent the country. It’s not for me in a personal sense as I was in England and people have seen my work.

“Scotland traditionally was a country, although this is many years ago, which had this wonderful history of qualification for World Cups and all of a sudden there has been a dearth in the last 20-odd years.

“What I believe we have shown, if you watch Celtic play, I would say you wouldn’t see it as a Scottish team, you would see us a European team in terms of how we play, press, the aggression, and also the sup- port. They are patient now because they understand what we’re doing and with that the end result comes.

“But it’s important for Scotland. Let’s not get away from that.

“We have to ensure we represent the Scottish game as best we can and when speaking with Steven Gerrard and other pundits afterwards on Wednesday, they were really impressed with what they saw with us.”

The internal debate surrounds whether one club being so far away from the rest, and there are many examples around Europe, isn’t a particularly great thing.

NOBODY is suggesting it’s good for competition in the purest sense of the word. St Johnstone and Aberdeen have started well and there is no reason they won’t fill second and third places.

However, they know as everyone does that they don’t stand a chance of doing much to prevent the champions making it seven titles wins in a row.

And as for Rangers, with three league games gone, even the most optimistic supporter realises t ing to m it’s not go

Rodge ly believ further th will see Celtic ge well in th tournam good.

“You g the dome have to Scottish have repr he said. A er teams