BRENDAN Rodgers has told his Celtic players they will all need to bring their A games if they want to record a victory over RB Leipzig at Parkhead tonight and boost their chances of reaching the Champions League knockout rounds.
The Scottish champions are, having beaten Feyenoord in their final group game last season and Slovan Bratislava in their opening league phase match this term, bidding to make it a hat-trick of home victories in Europe’s elite club competition.
Rodgers oversaw a 2-1 triumph over Leipzig during his first spell in charge in the East End of Glasgow back in 2018 – goals from Kieran Tierney and Odsonne Edouard secured a vital Europa League result.
The Northern Irishman ensured his side bounced back from the 7-1 humiliation they suffered at the hands of Borussia Dortmund in Germany a fortnight ago with a 0-0 draw against Atalanta in Italy.
However, he knows from personal experience that there can be no margin for error in any department, up front, in midfield or at the back, against Marco Rose’s high-flying Bundesliga team if they want to prevail and increase their chances of finishing in the top 24 in the league phase.
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“To win a game at this level, you have to bring your A-game to it,” he said. “I thought that night against Leipzig we were excellent, the intensity of our game, the pressure we had in the game.
“Of course, you have to ride your luck at times as well. That's the level. But no, I thought our intensity, our pressing, our football was very good on that evening. At this level, you have to be near-perfect to get a big result.”
“Because when we walked over at the end, which was on the back end of a tough evening, they stayed with the team. They were with the team. They'd seen what we'd been doing up until that point.
“We hope to prove that that was just a night where we just weren't at our best and we got heavily punished for it. But we've shown that we can learn. Then, like you say, getting results and getting results here can build that mindset again.
“Feyenoord and Bratislava were two really good games. The Bratislava one helped to get us off to a really good start in the competition. Now we play against a really, really top team on the back end of a good result and a fantastic result. Let's see if we can keep this mood going and keep that feeling going.”
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Rodgers is relishing being involved against the continent’s elite managers just as much as his charges are enjoying pitting themselves against some of the best players on the planet and is looking forward to his tactical battle with Rose.
“We're playing against a lot of teams that are superior to us and from superior leagues,” he said. “That challenge in itself is absolutely great. Trying to find ways of which to gain the results that can bring you to your end point.
“It's an amazing competition to be involved in. You have some games where you have to take your medicine. But I'm pretty sure it's all learning. We learn, we hope to be better, improve and certainly from a manager's perspective it's a really exciting level to be involved in.
“But I'm really excited by it because we've got ourselves, after three games, into a really good position. Two really tough games, a fantastic performance here and now we've got another opportunity to show that we can pick up a result against a top, top team.”
