Brendan Rodgers says Neil Lennon and Martin O'Neill were waxing lyrical about Celtic's performance against Bayern Munich last night.
The Parkhead side fell to a narrow 3-2 aggregate defeat at the hands of the German giants.
Wednesday night's second leg looked destined to head to extra time until Alphonso Davies won the tie in the dying embers.
It was heartbreaking for the Celtic players and fans, although many within the Celtic ranks were hugely encouraged by the team's performance.
Rodgers' predecessors, O'Neill and Lennon, were just a few. "Firstly, I've spoken to Martin and Neil Lennon," he said.
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"Those are two guys that have got extensive experience of European football at this club. And with the greatest respect, they were waxing lyrical about the performance and the result. And like I said, they recognise this is Bayern Munich, that we've come and come into their backyard and run this tie and this game here very, very close.
"So, yeah, I think performance-wise, result-wise, because it feels like a defeat. But we've come to here and we've got a very much deserved draw in the game. Sadly, it wasn't enough for us.
"We'll look back to the first game and those little details around the goals that we conceded then. I think it can give us nothing but confidence to show that the template I spoke about defensively was very good. We limited them to not so many chances.
"We looked dangerous when we had the ball. We had some real good opportunities. Going forward, we can take confidence from it and look to build the squad in order to be competitive at this level."
Celtic now turn their attention back to domestic action and ending the season on a high.
Rodgers' men have a healthy lead at the top of the Premiership and are in the last eight of the Scottish Cup.
They face Hibernian on Saturday as they aim to bounce back from their gut-wrenching European exit.
