Rodgers Raheem got real fright

Brendan Rodgers knew he had 60,000 fans inside Celtic Park on Wednesday night questioning if their hell-for-leather pressure could last 90 minutes.

But not only did he know his players could go the distance, he knew they would.

The Celtic boss vowed his side would play with an aggression against Manchester City that was missing against Barcelona.

And in a revealing insight, Rodgers insists everything they do on the training ground, every last detail of their preparation, including accommodating players like Tom Rogic – who burned bright then burned out – fitted in with the plan.

The players’ relentless execution of his plan against his former protege Raheem Sterling and the English Premier League leaders was simply the full stop on their week’s work.

Rodgers said: “Every player is fit just now. The training is tapered to maximise what they bring into a game.

“My physiologist Glenn does a terrific job. And there is a relationship between medicine/sports science and the football philosophy that we have.

“Each day the training pitch size is geared towards the next game. It means the players are at the right level of intense physical loading going into every game.

“When you’re pressing high up the pitch and being aggressive, a lot of your game is only in half a pitch. Nobody is asked to do any more or any less than anyone else.

“It’s the collective that allows us to work that way. And every player gives their all.”

Rodgers believes the players owe it to the fans to play to the end.

He said: “Look at the game on Wednesday – fast starts, late goals, under huge pressure in the last 15-20 minutes. We block, we fight.

“We do everything.

“There’s a mental fitness in the players and it’s growing all the time.

“And there’s physical fitness too. It’s huge to have that in your armoury – the ability to keep going when others are flagging.

“It would be easy at 3-1 or 4-1 against Kilmarnock just to sit off. No, you have to keep going, pushing to the end. It’s what the supporters want.

“You’re representing them so every minute, you devote it to them and give everything. We train to be like that and the players enjoy it. Really good players enjoy working hard.”

City star Sterling testified to that in a conversation with Brendan after the game.

The former Liverpool boss said: “I spoke to City manager Pep Guardiola then at length to Raheem.

“It was the toughest game they have had. Raheem just couldn’t believe the noise and afterwards said what a team we’ve got.

“If you think of what they’ve done in the Premier League, this was a world away from how comfortable they have been.

“They have really good players but let’s see how good they are when you can touch them, get right up to them.

“You get right up to the keeper, to the centre-half, and engage them physically.

“The players on the f ield dictate the atmosphere and the ambience. That is the hallmark of my teams, their opening periods and the intensity of the way they start.

“A lot of times that can win you games. With a tactical idea and tactical structure, you can take on anyone.”

Meanwhi le , Rodgers acknowledges he’ll soon have a problem on his hands establishing his first-choice defensive pairing.

Erik Sviatchenko was preferred to a resurgent Jozo Simunovic to partner Kolo Toure in midweek.

Simunovic got the nod ahead of Toure to face Dundee yesterday and Rodgers said: “Jozo is coming back from long-term injury and can’t play every game. I have to manage him and Kolo as well.

“We’ll get to a stage where there are two.

“Then again, Dedryck Boyata is training so well. I look at him, his speed and this way of working for him, it could real ly push him as well.”