Brendan Rodgers has opened up on what he told his Celtic players in the aftermath of their agonising Champions League exit to Bayern Munich in Germany.

Celtic came within seconds of forcing extra time at the Allianz Arena, only to be denied by Alphonso Davies’ last-gasp equaliser in the 94th minute. It was a bitter way to go out, but Rodgers was keen to ensure his squad drew the positives from their courageous performance.

Speaking about his post-match team talk, he said: [Celtic TV]

“After the game, I said to the players that it’s a real sign of how we’ve developed – that we’re sat in here at this stage of this competition against a club of this magnitude and we’re really disappointed.

“But I said that to come and perform that well we must draw the positives on that. Now we look forward and we’ve got two titles more to play for back home and we’ve got a few months to go. So let’s finish off on what can be an absolutely brilliant campaign for us.

“I said you can hold your head up so proud because you think of the level of the opponent and the team and what you look for in this game is respect. You’ll come off the pitch and these guys will respect you for what you did over the couple of games and these guys will be challenging for maybe the Champions League itself.

“So for that, again the disappointment was there naturally because of the nature of how the game ended. But no, I said to the players for us to be sat here feeling like this, it really shows how far you’ve come really because I looked in their eyes after the Dortmund game and that was a real tough one. So it just showed you the mentality and the resilience and the grit that this team have.

“They overcame that, recovered from the setback and then pushed on and we went back to the hotel, we had a beer and then got back to training the next day.”

The Hoops have put in a campaign that they can be proud of, and it goes to show how far the squad has come that they’re disappointed about a 94th-minute goal from Bayern Munich.

Celtic return to league action on Saturday, looking to extend their lead at the top of the table to 16 points for a few hours, with Rangers playing St Mirren at 3 pm.

If they lift the Scottish Premiership trophy this season, they will have to navigate a Champions League qualifier at the start of the 2025/26 campaign due to Scotland’s current coefficient ranking. The ties for which will be played out in August.

Celtic will go into a seeded team, so by theory, should have an easier opponent and a winnable tie.

But if the past is anything to go by, the qualification ties are never straight forward.