Gibraltar part-timers embarrass Celtic on Rodgers debut

Former Liverpool boss Rodgers, speaking before the first leg of the Tuesday (NZT Wednesday) Champions League second qualifying round, said the team would treat their semi-professional opponents “as if they were Real Madrid or Barcelona”.

Barton posted a series of emoji’s on Twitter displaying that he was crying with laughter, just an hour after the final whistle blew in Gibraltar.

Celtic legend Tom Boyd feels that the Bhoys looked as if they were treating their Champions League match against Lincoln Red Imps like a pre-season game.

However, the Northern Irishman’s tenure got off to a disappointing start with part-timer Lee Casciaro – who also works as a police officer – nicking a slender advantage for Lincoln with his second-half strike.

“There’s no embarrassment”, he said.

“The message [to the fans] is to stay calm”. We never took our chances and they took their chance.

“There’s no panic. We’ve got enough quality here to get through to the next round”.

“The players know what’s coming, they’re going to have to deal with it and it’s probably deserved”. I saw enough… we created enough to go through.

Rodgers lamented Celtic’s lacklustre finishing but insisted there was no humiliation in the defeat, looking to the second leg in Glasgow next week as a chance to put it right. This is a good group of players, they are working hard and in a week’s time we will need them. “We move on to next week”. Celtic have always been of the opinion that their presence in the early qualifying stages is somehow beneath them, but results like tonight will do little to aid their argument. Of course you never want to lose the game.

“We wanted an easier job after the first leg and this makes it a bit more complicated, but we will be fine for the second game”.