Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers shuts down reporter’s Hearts question ahead of Sturm Graz

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Brendan Rodgers is absolutely not interested in discussing the huge Scottish Premiership fixture against Hearts on Sunday.

Celtic find themselves five points behind the Jambos in the table after a deserved 2-0 defeat to Dundee on Sunday.

Hearts looked convincing in their 3-0 victory over Kilmarnock on Saturday, and it sets up a tantalising top of the table tussle this weekend.

But Sturm Graz in the Europa League comes first and that in itself is a very significant match given Celtic haven’t won in the league phase yet.

Rodgers wants his full focus to be on beating the Austrians, as he shut down a reporter’s question about the Hearts test.

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Celtic boss Rodgers bats Hearts poser away

Asked initially about the importance of the next fortnight’s games against Hearts, Falkirk, Rangers and FC Midtjylland, Rodgers replied: “I haven’t touched on that purely because it’s always about the next game.

“I think beyond and outside of coaching and managing, you look at the fixtures and you tend to look at how it maybe can look.

“But as a coach and manager in the modern game you can look no further than the next game, and that’s been our sole focus.

“We need to get our performance level to a higher level, and if we do that we’ll hopefully be in a better position.”

Pushed on the massive Hearts encounter specifically, Rodgers refused to be sucked in: “No, I think tomorrow night is the next game, and it’s a game where we had two home games on the spin in this competition and we wanted to take the points in those. We haven’t done that.

“We now come up against a really good team tomorrow night. Another big challenge for us and we’re going to be ready for that.”

Celtic can’t think about Hearts just yet

The focus needs to be on Sturm Graz and winning that game, arguably the easiest tie of Celtic’s Europa League league phase fixtures.

But it won’t be easy, because Sturm Graz are flying in the Austrian Bundesliga, sitting three points clear at the top with a game in hand.

They are full of confidence, certainly more so than Celtic are at the moment, and that’s a dangerous sign for the Hoops.

However, Sturm Graz are a bit leaky at the back, which was evidenced on Sunday as they won 4-3 against FC Blau-Weiß Linz.

Celtic need to try and expose those defensive frailties and get a first win on the board.