Brendan Rodgers has challenged his Celtic players to show courage and belief when they take on Bayern Munich in the Champions League knockout play-off second leg at the Allianz Arena on Tuesday night.
The Hoops go into the match trailing 2-1 after last week’s hard-fought defeat at Celtic Park, but Rodgers insists his side can cause problems for the Bundesliga giants if they play without fear.
With Bayern star Harry Kane a doubt for the clash due to injury concerns, the Celtic boss believes his team must seize the opportunity to write their own chapter in the club’s European history.
Speaking to the media ahead of the match, he said:
“There’s no second chance
“We’ve got to be clever, bright and brave and if we can do that, history has shown that in sport anything can happen.
“You come to this level and you have to play without any fear. There’s worse things in life than losing a game of football so we want to ensure when we come in after the game, if we don’t go through, we’ve given it absolutely everything.”
It’s an almighty ask for Celtic to come from behind in the away tie, but it’s not impossible. The Hoops showed that they can cause the Bundesliga side some problems in the closing stages of the defeat at Celtic Park, but keeping those levels, away from home, for 90 minutes is going to be a challenge.
Celtic really need to score the first goal in Germany, and will need to ride the storm.
With kick off hours away, Brendan Rodgers will be putting the final touches to what he hopes will be a masterplan.
