Show must go on as Parkhead boss prepares for Salzburg test
SUCH was the news that came out of Lennoxtown yesterday afternoon that tonight’s definitive Europa League game felt like little more than a footnote.
With Brendan Rodgers’ pre-match press conference dominated by news of Leigh Griffiths’ absence from the squad, chat around tonight’s make-or-break game against the Austrians took an inevitable back seat.
For Rodgers, though, there is an inevitability that the show must go on.
A sell-out crowd will be in attendance as Celtic look to engineer a point from the meeting that would enable them to progress into the latter stages of the tournament.
Doing so would be quite the accomplishment. It is not just that Salzburg are on a mission to make a little bit of Europa League history by claiming six wins in the group but also that Celtic in all European campaigns – Champions and Europa Leagues – have never knocked out a team from any of the top-five elite leagues.
Going into the knockout stage at the expense of Bundesliga side Leipzig would do just that, although for Rodgers it is more about the here and now than it is about the bigger picture.
“I look at it as enriching our football experiences and getting into the next stage,” said Rodgers. “It has never been done because it is so difficult to do.
“You look at the power of Leipzig and where they sit in their league, and look at Salzburg with the power that whole Red Bull organisation have, we’ve put ourselves in a really good position.
“You only want it to be in your hands, it is in our hands and we want to grab that.”
And, however this evening unfolds, Celtic will not be heading into the game on the hunt for just one point.
“We know it’s a tough test for us,” said Rodgers. “But with everything and knowing we need a result it’s not workable to play for a draw.
“It has the feel of a big game, a game that we are really, really looking forward to. And rightly so, because of our form … and not just how we have been playing in the last 2-3 months. In European competition, we have got better and better as the competitions have gone on. We maybe start off a bit slow, but we have always got better.
“It’s not workable to play for a draw. That doesn’t happen in football. You go out to win and see how the game evolves and take it from there.
“People say play for a draw. That’s unworkable. The mentality for us is we go to win and see where we go from there. And that’s how we play a game. We play a game to not concede a goal, be aggressive and this is a similar idea.
“There comes a point in a game, five or 10 minutes to go, it’s slightly different.
“It should be an incredible atmosphere, the wall of noise that comes from the stadium.