“It’s a great reward for the team and the club,” Brendan Rodgers

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The Celtic Star

·30. Januar 2025

“It’s a great reward for the team and the club,” Brendan Rodgers

Brendan Rodgers has insisted his team have put the building blocks in place to compete regularly at Champions League level…

Daniel Cummings, Arne Engels and Brendan Rodgers, Manager of Celtic, applauds the fans after the team’s defeat during the UEFA Champions League match between Aston Villa and Celtic at Villa Park on January 29, 2025. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

The Celtic manager watched on last night as his side battled back from 2-0 down in the first few minutes of the game to get level before half-time against Aston Villa in a gritty display.

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Adam Idah was the main man for Celtic

Adam Idah was the man of the hour when he scored a brace a few minutes apart to cancel out Morgan Rogers similar feat early on in the match. The big striker had the task of filling the void that the consistent Kyogo Furuhashi left after he completed a move to Ligue 1 side Stade Rennais earlier this week. And the big man didn’t disappoint with his contribution.

Adam Idah scores his team’s first goal past Emiliano Martinez during the UEFA Champions League match between Aston Villa and Celtic at Villa Park on January 29, 2025. (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

Great reward

Although the Hoops recovered well from that inauspicious beginning, it would be hard lines in the end up as Villa had too much quality in front of goal for the Bhoys to contend with. The Irishman was full of pride afterwards though and revealed the foundations are now built for us to really kick on in European competition. “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,” he said afterwards at his post match media conference.

Brendan Rodgers post match media conference from Villa Park

Clean sheet in Bergamo

“We went to Atalanta and kept a clean sheet and come here tonight and were in the game and 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.”

Adam Idah scores Celtic’s second goal past Emiliano Martinez of Aston Villa during the UEFA Champions League match between Aston Villa and Celtic at Villa Park on January 29, 2025. (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

Rodgers revealed that he enjoyed the new-style revamp of the tournament, adding: “I’ve really enjoyed it, 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’

Aston Villa v Celtic Champions League 29/01/2025. GOAL scores 2-1 Celtic forward Adam Idah 9 scores and celebrates with Celtic defender Liam Scales 5 during the Champions League match between Aston Villa and Celtic at Villa Park on 29 January 2025. Photo Manjit Narotra

‘The objective was to be competitive’

“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 will beat and learned from it on the night, we can compete.

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

Paul Gillespie

Celtic in the Thirties

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