Brendan Rodgers exuded confidence as he faced the media ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League match against Dinamo Zagreb.
With eight points from five matches Celtic have laid the groundwork to extend their Champions League involvement beyond the group stage for the first time since 2012.
The new format matched with the progress that Rodgers has made building his squad has transformed the outlook around the club, a year ago the hoops were looking to salvage a win against Feyenoord to end a 10 year run without winning at home in the competition.
A 5-1 win over Slovan Bratislava set the ball rolling, in a bizarre way losing 7-1 to Borussia Dortmund seems to have galvanised the side who are now unbeaten in three Champions League ties.
The matches against Atalanta and RB Leipzig showed that Celtic can compete with the best teams in Europe while a battling draw at home to Brugge called on resilience that has rarely been seen amid the hard luck stories against continental opponents.
Rodgers has been on the wrong end of some painful score-lines in the Champions League but with 16 very capable players to utlise over 90 minutes there is an assurance about the Irishman as he looks to raise the bar after years of underachievement from Celtic.
Asked if an away win was the next Champions League target for his side Rodgers didn’t back away from the opportunity that presents itself tomorrow night.
Yeah, I think so. I think it’s one where from last year we’ve been building towards performance level and results and this year we’ve been fairly consistent with that in the main and to win away from home because you know what it means to supporters as well as the points.
You know that an away win at any level, but in particular in the Champions League, it’s a difficult challenge but it’s one that gives a real good feeling. So, for us, it’s the next step.
As you say, you go to Atalanta and you defend how we did there, that gives you big confidence to know that you can go into any stadium and defend well.
For us, we hope that we can then bring our attack into the game alongside that, and we know that when we do that it gives us an opportunity to get that win. You know what it takes to do it.
I think working with this group now and this team over the last 15, 16 months, whatever it is, I feel that we’re in a really, really good place and I know we can arrive into these games now having made some big performances that we feel can get us big results at the level.
So, yeah, having won in Anderlecht in 2017, that was a great night for the team and the support.
After tomorrow’s match the Champions League goes into cold storage until the end of January when the group phase concludes at home to YB Bern on January 22 followed my a trip to Aston Villa a week later when all 36 clubs will be in action at the same time.
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