- With Patrick Sinat
Celtic tasted defeat after bravely battling against Aston Villa in the Champions League.
The Bhoys battled back against an Aston Villa side who took a shock 2-0 lead in the first five minutes of Celtic‘s final Champions League group game of the season.
Adam Idah was Celtic’s man of the moment after the Irishman netted a quickfire double to send Hoops boss Brendan Rodgers into the dressing room at halftime with something to protect.
However, Aston Villa’s class shone through as two second-half goals wrapped up the win to send Celtic back to Glasgow with just their second defeat of the campaign but with pride after giving the Premier League side a fright.
And reacting to the result, Brendan Rodgers admitted he was proud of his players and the squad for digging deep when things looked bleak to come back from an early shock.
Brendan Rodgers bursts with pride at Celtic showing vs Aston Villa
“It was a brilliant game, the word that strikes me at the moment is pride,” Rodgers said.
“We’re coming to a team that in the last couple years have been at the highest level in the Premier League and you’ve seen them in Europe.
“We played with so much courage and actually started well, we played with authority and comfort on the ball but then within a few minutes they get the first and a quick second goal.
“Then there’s a question asked of you as a team. Your spirit, mentality, character. Everything about you at this level but the players continued to play and we started getting contention because the first 10 minutes rocked us a wee bit.
“Once we started to get our aggression back in the game and our contact in pressing then that gave us the opportunity.
“We scored two very good goals and we took the game to injury time with it in the balance which was a great effort by the players.
“We played a big part in a really good game.”
Rodgers on how Celtic have coped vs Champions League big boys
Rodgers was later in his press conference asked about how he feels Celtic have competed with Europe’s elite during the newly revamped League Phase.
And the Irishman pointed to big results and performances his side have put in.
He also previewed what will be a brutally difficult knockout playoff.
“I think we’ve shown, apart from the Dortmund game where we were well beaten on the night, but we learned from that,” the manager added.
“We’ve gone away to Atalanta and kept a clean sheet, come here tonight and we’re in the game.
“We know it’s either Real Madrid or Bayern Munich in the next round which will be a huge challenge at this level but we’re building confidence and showing we’re a team that can play, work well and make it difficult for the top teams.
“Clearly it’s a great reward for the work the club and team have done.
“Whoever we play, they’re clearly top level teams.”
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
