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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
Sport
David Irvine

Defiant Brendan Rodgers defends Celtic Champions League approach

Defiant Brendan Rodgers has defended Celtic's approach in the Champions League.

The Celtic manager faced questions over the need to adapt when facing the elite clubs in Europe but insisted he will never resort to sitting in despite the 7-1 loss to Dortmund.

Quizzed on heavy losses for Celtic in the Champions League to Real Madrid, Barcelona, PSG and now Dortmund and why it keeps happening, Rodgers said: "Yeah, yeah. It's exactly the teams you have mentioned: Barcelona, Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund..."

Further pushed on whether he will alter his tactical approach in Europe, Rodgers responded: "We always have to adapt but sometimes the quality just breaks through that. 

"Are we going to sit in and camp and wait and wait? No we won't do that.


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"We play in a way that allows us domestically to dominate, we know it is going to be difficult at times for us to do that but we still have to show our ability with the ball.

"I thought tonight we weren't anywhere near that level, we just gave it away too easily and then we get punished form that.

"We had two penalties in the first half, from a direct corner the guy scores and unbelievable goal from outside the box so before we know it we were 4-1 down.

"Clearly, that can affect your confidence but I was proud of the players in the second half, we kept fighting and kept our spirit up.

"We will be very disappointed with the performance. It's the first time we've had this losing feeling for a long time but you have to learn from it and move on."

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