Brendan Rodgers has revisited Celtic's infamous Champions League "eye opener" in Gibraltar, insisting it served as an early marker that fans wouldn't accept any drop in standards.
The Premiership champions were beaten by part-time Lincoln Red Imps in a second round qualifying first leg in Rodgers ' first competitive match in charge. And although his side bounced back to win the second leg comfortably before eventually going all the way to the group stage, the initial result laid bare the perils of the early qualifying ties.
Ange Postecoglou's Celtic face no such danger this season as Scotland's improved UEFA coefficient catapulted them directly into the 2022/23 group stage after winning last season's league title. And the now Leicester City manager reckons that swerving the qualifying hurdles is a "great" boost for Postecoglou and his players. Rodgers told Kammy and Ben’s Proper Football Podcast : “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.”
