Brown hopes Hoops can improve

Scott Brown hopes Celtic can improve on last season’s narrow win over Rosenborg after drawing the Norwegian team again in the Champions League qualifiers.

The Scottish champions struggled to a 1-0 win over two legs in the third round of qualifying last year and now face them a round earlier after comfortably seeing off Alashkert 3-0 on Wednesday night, 6-0 on aggregate.

Brown is hoping they can use the momentum of the win to put in an improved performance next week.

“We played them last year and got a disappointing result at home but we went away and managed a 1-0 victory,” the skipper told Celtic TV.

“We hope to do a little bit better this year.”

The budding partnership between Dembele and Odsonne Edouard up front for Celtic hinted at an exciting future, as manager Brendan Rodgers again departed from his favoured formation of playing one up front.

Dembele left the pitch late on with a leg injury but it is not thought to be serious and Brown is looking forward to the potential impact the pair could have this season.

He said: “They have got pace, power and pretty much everything you want.

“Defenders will be scared of them and, if they keep playing the way they are playing, hopefully we can keep them fit for the rest of the season.”