Brendan Rodgers watched his side steamroll Portimonense in a pre-season friendly match in Portugal today and gave his thoughts on the performance via Celtic TV. The Hoops have been busy laying the groundwork for another tilt at the Scottish Premiership title and UEFA Champions League group stage football this year and have got their first win under the new boss out the way.

☀️ Our warm weather camp comes to an end with a 4-1 win over Portimonense S.C.

Thank you to @TheCampusQDL for their fantastic hospitality over the past week!#CelticFC | #COYBIG🍀 pic.twitter.com/CGo8vyoSn6

— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) July 15, 2023

Although just a non-competitive game this morning, it will pay dividends for the Hoops come the start of the season and give the players a chance to get minutes in the legs, whilst acclimatising to the new manager and his style. Goals from Reo Hatate, Liel Abada, Ben Summers and Oh Hyeon-gyu were enough to seal the game for the Bhoys.

After the match, the Irishman said: “Yeah, it was excellent. We’ve had a fantastic week so to finish off with a decent performance and a good result for the guys, even though that’s not the most important thing at this stage, I was really pleased.

“The heat’s been sweltering here but in terms of intensity, you know, some of the football was very, very good. So still a long way to go but yeah, really pleased. Yeah I think you could see with some of the goals we scored in terms of our pressing, high up the pitch and looking to win it and then took our chances.

🖼️ Pre-season Training Gallery: Part 2

📸 As the #CelticFC squad get set to leave their warm weather training camp and head out to Japan on tour, here's another selection of images from this week's pre-season camp!#COYBIG🍀

— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) July 15, 2023

“It was a really good run out, obviously some of the international guys, it was the first bit of game time. But overall, it’s been a really good week but a tough week for the players and staff because there’s been no real time in the schedule for much but they’ve worked really well in this first part of the tour – really pleasing.”

Attention will no turn to our upcoming tour of Japan this week and after a period of short recovery, Rodgers and his staff are looking forward to another new adventure with Celtic abroad.

The Celtic manager said: “Yeah it’s a tough schedule over the two weeks here in the heat and obviously it’ll be similar heat in Japan with the humidity. And obviously the teams we’re playing out there are already halfway through their season.

“So it will be a step up again in challenge for us, but that’s what we want. We need that challenge at the start of the season to improve our fitness levels. So we’ll go back today, recover tonight and then we’re away tomorrow and I’m really looking forward to Japan.”

Paul Gillespie

🎙️ Brendan Rodgers on the match

💬 "It was excellent. We’ve had a fantastic week so to finish it off with a decent performance and a good result for the guys I’m really pleased."#PORCEL | #CelticFC | #COYBIG 🍀

— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) July 15, 2023

HUGE SAVINGS IN THE CELTIC STAR’S SUMMER SALE!

The Celtic Star’s Father’s Day Promotion has been so successful, with hundreds of books at great prices being posted to Celtic fans all over the world, that we’ve decided to continue with the sale until the end of July. We’ve reduced all six books currently available from their usual retail price of £20 and prices are as low as £6 (see below).

All books are high quality hardback, with some signed by the author. And it’s also worth noting that you only pay postage on one book, so it’s free for the second, third and so on. ORDER HERE or click on The Celtic Star image above…this is how it feels to be Celtic!