Beaming Rodgers jokes Celtic's Champions League campaign must 'end now' after 'sensational' performance
The Celtic manager was left purring by his side’s rip-roaring display in the 5-1 mauling of Slovan Bratislava
Brendan Rodgers has jokingly suggested he wants Celtic’s Champions League campaign to end NOW and face Bayern Munich in the final following their clinical 5-1 dismantling of Slovan Bratislava on matchday one.
The Hoops boss was left purring by his side’s rip-roaring display against the Slovakian champions, who were making their debut in the competition in front of an electric Celtic Park atmosphere. Liam Scales, Arne Engels, Kyogo Furuhashi, Daizen Maeda and Adam Idah were all on target in a high-scoring affair as the Parkhead side notched their first opening game win at the 13th time of asking.
And Rodgers admitted he was full of pride with the way his stars performed, claiming he could sense before kick-off that there was a memorable evening in store.
Celtic’s 5-1 victory means the sit second behind Bundesliga giants Bayern, who destroyed Dinamo Zagreb 9-2 in their opening fixture on Tuesday night - an observation Rodgers was quick to point out.
The Northern Irishman joked: “Yeah the competition stops now, we play Bayern Munich in the final! But it was a great night for everyone, I thought you just sensed it before the game. The feeling in the crowd. I’m so proud of the team, the intensity we played with and without the ball was so good. It was a great night.
“I thought we played well in the first half, got the early goal that we wanted and had other opportunities to be more clinical. But I just felt we were taking once touch too many. Our ability as a team to play with a touch, pass tempo and with less touches just speeds up our game. And just a couple of little positional changes where the structure was too much movement at times in the first half. So we needed to keep our position and then that allowed you to get through the pitch quicker and get into the areas that we wanted to.
“From showing some of that at half-time and then seeing the second half right from the off, the players were absolutely sensational. Just everything. Mentality, hungry, greedy for more goals, greedy for the ball, everyone working right to the end. We could’ve had more than five so it was a really good performance.”