BETFRED CUP FINAL MOTHERWELL V CELTIC

CELTIC released their Christmas advertisement with an impeccable sense of timing yesterday.

Another light-hearted affair, it shows three generations of one Hoops-daft family returning home for the festive period, laden down with an array of official club merchandise naturally, via three different modes of transport.

Striker Leigh Griffiths portrays a Glasgow cabbie while captain Scott Brown can be seen piloting a jumbo jet with a little help from his fellow midfielder Stuart Armstrong.

And what of Brendan Rodgers? The manager plays a coach driver who ends the journey by parking his bus outside of Parkhead.

There is a irony in that because “parking the bus” is exactly what many fans and former players felt he should have done in Celtic’s penultimate Champions League group game against Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday evening.

The Scottish champions were on the receiving end of another heavy defeat – on this occasion they slumped to a 7-1 loss - against top class European opposition in the Parc des Princes and Rodgers has been heavily criticised as a consequence.

The Northern Irishman, though, feels that adopting the same ultra-defensive tactics which many of his predecessors have deployed on their forays on the continent would have made little difference to the final outcome given the quality of the side they faced.

Their opponents fielded Edinson Cavani, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe, the most expensive strikeforce in football history, in attack.

Asked if he should have parked the bus as he looked back on the game and ahead to the Betfred Cup final against Motherwell at Hampden tomorrow, Rodgers quipped: “I would’ve needed a fleet of them over there wouldn’t I?”

The former Swansea City and Liverpool manager, whose side can still qualify for the last 32 of the Europa League if they draw with or defeat Anderlecht in their final group game in Glasgow on Tuesday week, will continue to encourage his team to execute a positive game plan.

“PSG beat Barcelona at home 4-0 last season without Mbappe and Neymar,” he said. “Without them. Barcelona at home. But we were 4-1 going into the latter stages of the game.

“Of course, we will always analyse it. We could have defended better. But don’t start asking me to do something differently. We did exactly the same thing against Bayern Munich and the narrative for that game was that we actually did really well. We play how we play.

“You have to realise that may not be enough sometimes at the high level that we play at. I am not going to worry about it. We are going to try and improve and do better.

“They had 11 shots and scored seven goals. You have to admire how clinical they were, you have to admire their sheer quality. But I also admire the courage of my players to go and play and give everything in the game and defend as well as they possibly could. We just got outdone by a really top level team.”

Rodgers continued: “I don’t need to justify to anyone how we play as long as the players want to play and work that way. We are defensively very strong. Our first thought is to defend.

“People have asked if would I have done anything differently. But we were playing a back five. We were plying four midfielders and we were playing one up front.

“What do they want us to play? Seven at the back, two midfield players and one up front? Or do they want me to be camped in around the box and lose 4-0? No chance. It won’t happen.

“If we do the job against Anderlecht and get into the Europa League that will be a really good campaign for us because it’s a step forward. The level of teams in the Europa League, with all due respect, will still be a way above us. But can we find a way?”

CELTIC will face a completely different challenge tomorrow when they take on a Motherwell team which has been widely