Red Star Belgrade boss Vladan Milojevic has been speaking to reporters before he faces Celtic in the Europa League.
Wednesday night marks the beginning of the competition’s league phase and Celtic will face Red Star in Belgrade to kick off their journey.
The Hoops will face the likes of Roma, Feyenoord and Bologna too, although it’s clear many fans are disinterested in the campaign due to their strong opposition to the club’s board.
Fans feel Celtic should be in the Champions League and blame the board partly for the embarrassing play-off defeat to Kairat Almaty.
Despite that loss and the squad being weaker than last season, Milojevic believes Celtic ARE a Champions League level team.
Vladan Milojevic on Celtic and Brendan Rodgers
Moreover, the Red Star manager reserved special praise for his dugout counterpart Brendan Rodgers, whom he called a ‘great strategist’.
Milojevic said: “I truly believe that Celtic is an exceptionally good team with a great coach who was working for a long time in the English Premier League.
“He’s a great strategist coach. A lot of journalists from Serbia were asking me about the favourites. There’s no favourites in football. It’s a game of inspiration, the moment, certain specific moments.
“On paper you write whatever you want but Celtic is a team that was made for participation in the league of champions.
“It’s exceptionally dominant and strong. They are physical. They also have a lot of foreign players, so it will be an interesting game in any case.”
Milojevic dismisses Celtic’s Kairat embarrassment
Meanwhile, Milojevic was quizzed on Celtic’s penalty shootout defeat to Kazakhstan side Kairat Almaty in the Champions League play-off round.
He said Celtic lost in ‘not the right parameters’ and maintains they are a good team, saying: “Those were the games that Celtic were favourites and have much better qualities.
“Celtic have better qualities than Kairat. They played those two games. I don’t want to say anything bad for the Kairat team but those were not right parameters.
“Celtic has a good team and as any team we’re aware that at this moment they also have certain issues.
“They are looking at tactics, their game as we are. At the beginning of the championship, we also have a lot of issues. But I think we’ll be well prepared for the game.”
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