The return to domestic action this weekend saw Brendan Rodgers pick up another Scottish Premiership win after beating Hearts 2-0 at Celtic Park.
Goals from new summer signings, Arne Engels and Luke McCowan, sealed the win over the Edinburgh side to extend Celtic’s lead over Rangers at the top of the Scottish Premiership table by eight points.
Indeed, Rangers face Dundee United at Tannadice this lunchtime knowing that they must win if they want to keep in touch within touching distance of Celtic as European football comes into focus midweek.
With Brendan Rodgers preparing to take another crack that Champions League football, the Celtic boss admits he’s excited by the challenge that’s ready to come.
Celtic ‘ready to attack’ Slovan Bratislava
Rodgers opens up the Champions League campaign with a home fixture against Slovan Bratislava at Celtic Park on Wednesday night,
And whilst the Celtic boss is ‘excited’ about it, he’s aiming to get three points on the board against the Slovakian champions.
Rodgers told The Scottish Mail on Sunday [print edition page 104], “Yes, I’m excited by it. We’ve got good balance in the squad.
“We’ve got areas, of course, that I would want to improve later on. But we’ve done a hell of a lot of work and real, real good work over the course of the summer.
“We go into it in a real positive place. The mindset is strong. We’re ready to attack.
“We know the level that we’re playing at, but it’s OK. We will go and we’ll give it everything. We want to make a really positive start on Wednesday and we’re looking forward to it.”
Rodgers: ‘It’s not easy’ managing Celtic
However, domestically, Rodgers is flying after picking up his fifth win of the season against Hearts. With 14 goals scored and none conceded, it’s looking easy for the Celtic boss at the top of the league.
But the Irishman takes issue with that after hearing people say exactly that and Rodgers says that despite what people say, it’s challenging managing and playing for the biggest club in the country.
Rodgers continued, “Managing Celtic or playing for Celtic, people say it’s easy. It’s not easy. It’s certainly not, because of the demand, the expectation, the mentality that you need to succeed.
“Thankfully, we have a winning culture. But it (the challenge) was to make the next step. And the next step is probably Europe.
“At the very highest level, it was a real, real challenge for us. For so many good managers before me, it’s been a challenge.
“But we’re hoping now that with a strong squad, with improvements still to make, in our play, that we can go and really attack it.”
Every Celtic fan knows that managing their club is one of the toughest jobs in football. The demand to win every game, regardless of the opponent and the competition, is always there.
It takes a strong mindset to deal with that pressure and, so far, Rodgers has handled that perfectly in the 18 months he has been in charge of Celtic.
The next test now is Slovan Bratislava. The Celtic supporters will, again, will stipulate that three points are a must to get the campaign off to a positive start and the way that the team are playing now, it’s difficult to see anything other than a home win on Wednesday night.
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