Q: When you’re approaching these games, do you look at it from a, how can you exploit their weakness? Or how do you find ways to accentuate our qualities?
Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers is seen during the UEFA Champions League 2024/25 League Knockout Play-off first leg Press Conference on February 11, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
Brendan Rodgers: “It’s exactly the same in every single game, whether that’s Raith or Bayern Munich or whatever. You always have to respect the opposition and what their strengths are. So how can you curtail those? But then we want to always play like a big team and we want to impose our way in the game. So of course that is very, very important for us. But it’s balance. I always think you defend well, you pass well.
“Thankfully these players are being so, so good in that aspect from a defensive perspective. That has given us the platform to play some great football in all the competitions. So it will be the balance of the game between pressing and then bringing our creativity to the game. That’s our game identity. It’s very much about the connection in the team, with and without the ball, being creative, breaking lines, hard running. All these things are all part of our game.”
Nicolas Kuhn of Celtic celebrates scoring his team’s second goal during the UEFA Champions League match between Celtic FC and RB Leipzig at Celtic Park on November 05, 2024 (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
Q: A few of the players mentioned the RB Leipzig game as being a benchmark for yourselves in this competition. What pleased you most about the team performance on that night? And do you think you may have to better that again?
Brendan Rodgers: “We’ll certainly have to be at the same level of that. I think that when I look at everything, we played the game technically and tactically at a really high level. The mindset, we were also really good in the game. So having started well and then actually gone behind in the game, how we responded, I was impressed by that.
Nicolas Kuhn of Celtic celebrates scoring his team’s second goal during the UEFA Champions League match between Celtic FC and RB Leipzig at Celtic Park on November 05, 2024. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
“Then like I say, the big steps that we’ve made this season has been in the physical demands of the game. Because at this level, it’s absolutely critical. That pleased me because the pressing that we did, if you think of the second goal, it’s one of the best goals that we’ve scored since we’ve been here. Why? Because it shows that mentality, it shows a real positivity to step inside the pressure and win the ball. So that side of the game was really good. And yes, we will have to get to those levels again.”
