Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers has taken his side from the bottom of their Champions League group last year to within one victory of securing progression to the knockout playoff phase.
Last year was a painful lesson, albeit with some positive tinges as the Bhoys ended on four points in a group with Feyenoord, Atletico Madrid and Lazio.
Enjoying an upward trajectory, Celtic have taken two wins and two draws from their opening five Champions League matches this campaign, with a victory against Dinamo Zagreb tonight set to be enough to reach the next stage.
Brendan Rodgers knows the reigning Scottish Premiership champions have their destiny in their own hands. However, claiming a first away triumph since toppling Anderlecht in 2017 is required to cement their position.
Notable strides have been made this term following a Celtic transfer spend exceeding £30 million in the summer. Now, the Irishman has signalled why a culmination of events has left his side brimming with confidence as they bid to make history.
Brendan Rodgers on Celtic’s confidence ahead of Zagreb clash
Speaking ahead of Celtic’s clash with Dinamo Zagreb, Rodgers believes that his side’s ability to recover from setbacks such as their heavy defeat away to Borussia Dortmund alongside claiming several statement results have given them ‘confidence’ on the European stage.
He stated: “I don’t think there’s any doubt, I think working with this group now and this team over the last 15-16 months, I feel that we’re in a really, really good place. I know we can arrive into these games now having made some big performances that we feel can get us big results at the level. Having won in Anderlecht, that was a great night for the team and the support.
“Like you say, we would like to give ourselves the best opportunity we can, and to do that is to look to win our next game. It’s away from home, so we want to take our chance to do that.”
Later, he added: “At this level you need big performances, that’s what gains you the confidence. Like I said, I take it back to last year, and I have seen enough there to feel that we could improve; we have improved, but I feel we’ve improved as a collective.
“A club like ourselves at this level, it really is about the team. We’ve had some big performances in this campaign, which gives us that confidence. But we also showed importantly that we could come from a setback, which was quite a big setback, and that as a coach and a manager gives you great faith and hope in the players that you have.
“From that moment, the players have been brilliant. How they’ve performed, how they’ve played and we know that home and away, we can be a very difficult team to play against. That’s our idea, make it very difficult to play against us when we have the ball and when we haven’t got the ball.”
Celtic looking to give Dinamo Zagreb a difficult evening
Dinamo Zagreb have an injury crisis ahead of facing Celtic, with several first-team stars unavailable to take part that has prompted Nenad Bjelica to promote some of his youth players to the senior fold.
The Bhoys will be determined to capitalise on their predicament, but experienced European outfits seldom crumble at the sight of a few adverse circumstances.
Croatia’s champions have seven points in the Champions League and would overtake Celtic with a victory, so Rodgers will be on-guard to avoid any complacency.
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