Brendan Rodgers hails Real Madrid or Bayern Munich tie as 'great reward' for Celtic

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers hailed a play-off tie against Bayern Munich or Real Madrid as “a great reward” for his side after their Champions League achievements so far.

The Scottish champions rounded off their League Phase campaign with a 4-2 defeat at Aston Villa but reached their qualification objective with a bit to spare, having already secured a play-off spot.

They now know that Friday’s draw will pit them against either Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich or holders and 15-time winners Real Madrid.

Rodgers was excited by the prospect and though he acknowledged the huge financial gulf between his club and either opponent, he said Celtic had proven in this campaign that they could compete with the elite.

“It’s a great reward for the team and the club and the work they’ve done but whoever we play they’re clearly top-level teams,” the manager said.

“We went to Atalanta and kept a clean sheet and come here tonight and were in the game. We know it’s Real Madrid or Bayern Munich in the next round which will be a huge challenge but we’re building confidence at this level and showing we’re a team who can work well and make it difficult for the top teams.

“I’ve enjoyed the different levels but every game at this level is really tough and I’m just proud of how we’ve performed because Scotland gets a wee bit of stick in its football.

“But you can clearly see we have teams who have the courage to play despite being nowhere near the resource level of teams in the Premier League but we can be competitive and that’s what you want to be.”

Wednesday’s matches drew a line under the first stage of the new competition format and it’s proven to be a hit with Rogers, who guided his side to three wins, three draws and two defeats from their eight matches so far.

“I’ve really enjoyed it,” he said. “Playing different teams and going to different cities, it’s been really good and there would have been a level of excitement with people watching their screens and seeing who they might get.

“The format has been really good, I’ve really enjoyed it and we’ll get ready for the next challenge. We’ve shown, apart from the Dortmund game where we were well beaten and learned from it on the night, we can compete.”

While happy with the achievement this season, Rodgers sees it as a platform to build on and believes that strengthening the squad and building experience will stand them in good stead for the future.

“The objective was to be competitive at this level and in the eight games we’ve built a foundation,” he said.

“You see the work we need to do to improve the squad and sustain that challenge. We had to bring on young players who hadn’t played for Celtic before – never mind the Champions League.

“But over the course of the eight games we qualified on merit and showed some great football along the way.”