Brendan Rodgers explains Celtic’s Champions League advantage

Celtic will be making their long awaited return to the Champions League this season, after guaranteeing themselves a spot in the competition by winning the Premiership title against all expectations. European nights under the lights are always special, and this time even more so, after such a long absence.

The last time that Celtic played in the Champions League was under the management of Brendan Rodgers. While the Northern Irishman did an incredible job in domestic competitions, his record in Europe’s elite competition was not brilliant.

The Hoops were unlucky to come up against some incredible teams like Barcelona, Manchester City, PSG and Bayern Munich though, so they could not have been blamed for failing to make the knockout phases. It remains to be seen if they can do any better under the management of Ange Postecoglou.

A guaranteed spot in the Champions League is certainly a luxury that Rodgers did not have, during his time as Celtic manager. While speaking on Kammy & Ben’s Proper Football Podcast and as reported by 67 Hail Hail, the Leicester City boss said:

"“I remember playing in Gibraltar; we had a really good pre-season. And this is the tough thing, it’s great for Ange now because they’ve got no qualifiers and go straight into the group stage.“Back then, you got four qualifying rounds. So, you’re having to play eight games just to try and get to the Champions League.“I had gone in that summer (2016), the guys were fantastic in pre-season, but even in that first game in Gibraltar, you could see the vulnerabilities of the team in Europe.“So, we lost 1-0 out there. It was a game over two legs you were going to win because you went back (to Parkhead). But, it was an eye-opener at that point to lose that opening game against, with all due respect, guys who were part-time.“And, it was a real eye-opener in terms of you could see the supporters weren’t happy even though they probably knew we would get through. But that was part of the journey.”"

Rodgers explains advantage that Celtic have in the Champions League this season

There is no doubt that being in the Champions League group stage without having to go through the qualifying phase is certainly a massive advantage for any team.

Celtic have not been able to get past those qualifying rounds for years now and it would have been interesting to see if they could have done so this time, under the management of Postecoglou. But thankfully, we do not need to find that out and the Hoops are already guaranteed a spot in the main phase instead.

On the other hand, the Rangers find themselves in the qualifying phase this time around. They did well to get past Royale Union SG, after losing the first leg 2-0. Now, let’s see what they do vs PSV Eindhoven in the play-offs.