Brendan Rodgers wants Celtic to be on front foot against Barcelona

Rodgers, though, had no regrets regarding his team’s performance.

BRENDAN Rodgers last night praised the progress Celtic have made in Champions League this season despite seeing their chances of progressing to the knockout rounds ended by defeat to Barcelona.

The yellow card means Neymar is now suspended for Barca’s last Group C game against Borussia Monchengladbach, but top spot is already secure after the 2-0 win for Luis Enrique’s side in Glasgow, which came thanks to Lionel Messi’s double.

The brace took his Champions League total to 92 goals, including nine in this season’s group stage.

Luis Enrique also replaced Neymar with 13 minutes to go after the Brazilian star was booked following a rift with Celtic right-back Mikael Lustig, prompting jeers of the home fans as he walked towards the bench.

“Hopefully we’ll be back next year”.

“The club had a period of time not qualifying so we had a huge effort in the summer over the course of the pre-season to qualify”. The referee didn’t give us much during the game, but that’s how it goes sometimes.

“If we take some of our chances then it might have been a different game but we showed a vast improvement, which is important”.

“It’s just about maintaining that standard and that’s down to your demands every day in training”. Messi is arguably the greatest player ever, so when he plays in your team, he makes everyone else better.

Barcelona humiliated Celtic 7-0 in their first group encounter in September, with Messi scoring a hat trick in the lopsided match at the Camp Nou. I think it’s one of the nicest atmospheres you can see in European football.

“It was a very hard group and it’s great to finish first with a game to spare”.

Celtic, while dominating the Scottish league, have failed to make an impact in European play; they are now sitting at the bottom of Group C with two points.

“Seriously, we know that we need to be calm and understand that we’re not going to have a lot of the ball”.