Rodgers hails brilliant Celtic after stunning Champions League triumph
●Rodgers hails his players as they claim a rare Champions League win on the road
Brendan Rodgers believes no praise is high enough for his Celtic players after they claimed a landmark 3-0 Champions League victory against Anderlecht in Brussels.
It was a memorable and significant night for Celtic as they claimed only their second away win in the group stage of the Champions League, their first since a 3-2 win over Spartak Moscow under Neil Lennon five years ago.
It was also their first clean sheet on the road in this phase of the tournament, coming at the 28th attempt.
There were personal milestones, too, as Leigh Griffiths scored the first Champions League group stage goal of his career to put Celtic in front seven minutes before the interval. Patrick Roberts doubled their lead in the 50th minute before Scott Sinclair wrapped up a highly satisfying night for Rodgers by making it 3-0 in stoppage time. “It was an outstanding performance and result,” said Rodgers. “Everyone had built the game up before, it was a real pressure game for us. “It was a brilliant team performance. We started the game with good confidence. We gave the ball away loose at times and we just need to clean up our build-up play. Then our confidence came with the more passes we made. We got our first goal from a great move and from that point, offensively we were a real threat.
“The defensive organisation of the team, the concentration tactically, these are the things you are looking to see at this level. There are still areas to improve but they were absolutely exceptional. For a Scottish team to come away, win 3-0 and keep a clean sheet at this level, is obviously a big achievement.
“A lot of people look at the goals we score and creativity we have but we have a defensive philosophy which
is about being compact and aggressive. When good teams get through, as they will at times, you need to be able to defend your box.
“You saw our concentration, the amount of times Anderlecht were caught offside. The defensive line was good. As a team we were very good defensively. Every result is big at this stage but to get a 3-0 was huge.”
Celtic are now third in Group B, level on points with second-placed Bayern Munich who lost 3-0 to Paris Saint-germain in France last night. Rodgers’ men travel to Germany to face Bayern next on 18 October but he shrugged off a suggestion they have already taken a big step towards at least finishing third in the group and reaching the last 32 of the Europa League.
“Not really,” he said. “There is a long way to go in the group. PSG won 3-0 tonight, so maybe our 5-0 defeat against them wasn’t so bad. Maybe we’ll get a little bit of credit somewhere along the line.”
The only negative aspect of the night for Celtic was the sight of captain Scott Brown limping off with what appeared to be a hamstring strain.