BRENDAN RODGERS was bewildered, beaten and still defiant as he reflected on Celtic’s 2-1 Champions League downfall against Bayern Munich at Parkhead last night.
The Hoops gaffer will take his troops to Bavaria on Tuesday for the second leg of the play-off encounter with their faint hopes hanging by the slimmest of threads.
But the Irishman remains positive and refuses to accept the European adventure is over for another year.
Rodgers, though, was more than perplexed his dozy defenders allowed Harry Kane – “one of the game’s greatest strikers,” according to the Celtic boss – the freedom of the penalty area at a left-wing corner-kick to hook in the second and winning goal four minutes after the turnaround.
Looking back at the collective failure of his players to identify the obvious threat of the prolific English international hitman, he offered a simple observation.
UP IN ARMS…Brendan Rodgers makes an appeal during a hectic moment against Bayern Munich.
Rodgers admitted: “I just said to the guys in there afterwards: ‘In our corners and everything else we’ve been very good, but one player you don’t leave unmarked is arguably the best striker in world football.
“So, Harry finishes it really well, 2-0, then we’ve got to make the changes but I thought in the last 25 minutes then we started to press the game and you see what it brought.”
It was another sorry tale of ‘what if’ for the manager and his players in this highly-competitive environment.
Nicolas Kuhn – and 60,000 fans in the packed and pulsating stadium – thought he had given the hosts a dream start in only 25 SECONDS with a low shot from outside the box that eluded the right hand of Manuel Neuer.
However, the referee’s standside assistant immediately flagged for an offside offence against Adam Idah and the effort was just as quickly ruled out.
Alas, it must be said it was the correct decision.
And there was a shout for a penalty-kick in the 55th minute when Arne Engels was floored by Dayot Upmecano and the match official, Spain’s Jesus Gil Manzano, was instructed by VAR to have a second look on the touchline TV screen.
A BIG HAND…Brendan Rodgers applauds the Celtic fans after their unstinting support.
After a minute or so of deliberation, he returned to the field and dashed hopes of a spot-kick award by ordering to play on after deeming the defender had first made contact with the ball before his clumsy follow-through on the Belgian playmaker.
Once again, unfortunately, it was difficult to find a flaw in his judgement.
So, it just wasn’t Celtic’s night against opponents who looked fairly comfortable up until Daizen Maeda pulled one back in the 79th minute and there were definite signs of the wobbles.
Seven minutes were added on, but the Hoops just couldn’t get that crucial leveller with Alistair Johnston coming the closest in the first minute of stoppage-time with a rasping drive that was fisted over the bar by Neuer.
The opening goal arrived on the stroke of half-time when Michael Olise latched onto a raking long pass on the right, turned inside Greg Taylor, accepted a bobble off the left-back’s shin and fired an unstoppable drive high into the top left-hand corner of Kasper Schmeichel’s net.
UNMARKED…Harry Kane is on his own as he steers Bayern Munich’s winning goal between Kasper Schmeichel and Adam Idah.
Rodgers, speaking to Celtic TV, continued: “There’s a tinge of disappointment. We were too passive. We looked like we got off to the start we want within the first minute with a fantastic goal.
“If that counts, it gives you the confidence and the boost to kick on in the game.
“And then we get done just before half-time with a brilliant goal – and, of course, we’re disappointed with the second goal.
“But our reaction to their second goal was great. We started to get in contention.
“We shifted the game to get more pressure at the top end of the field and in the last 20 minutes we looked like a real threat in the game.”
As he prepares for Saturday’s Premiership visit of Dundee United ahead of Tuesday’s confrontation at the Allianz Arena, Rodgers added: “I just said to the players that we’re in the tie and that was important.
“We wanted to be alive in the tie. It’s going to be a difficult challenge for us over there. However, we take confidence from the last 25 minutes of the game.
“Once you have that aggression and mentality, then you show that you can cause them problems.
“It’s still in the balance. We know it’s going to be tough, but we know if we play with confidence then we can certainly get something.”
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