DEFIANT Brendan Rodgers insists Celtic have the ability to win through their Europa League Group B – despite last night’s 2-0 loss against RB Leipzig in Germany.
The Hoops struggled again on their travels and weren’t helped by the absence of injured inspirational skipper Scott Brown and others such as James Forrest, who was suspended, Tom Rogic, Kristoffer Ajer and Leigh Griffiths.
And Rodgers’ woes piled up with Jozo Simunovic being stretchered off near the end and the Croatian central defender is now a massive doubt for the vital Betfred League Cup semi-final against Hearts at Murrayfield on Sunday.
First-half strikes from Matheus Cunha and Bruma in the space of four horrible minutes were enough for the Bundesliga big-spenders to gain the victory and move three points ahead in the section, but the Irishman remains convinced his team can overturn the result at Parkhead next month.
Rodgers said: “I felt there were a lot of positives from the game.
“If we are going to have any aspiration of getting through the group, the next game is first and foremost one we have to win. That will be our objective.
“We’ve obviously lost two matches against two very good sides away from home we’ve got three points on the board.
“Having 60,000 at home will certainly give us a great opportunity.”
He added: “I thought we started the game very well. After 25 minutes, they changed their system to match our diamond.
“I felt we were finding the spaces well and were getting into good positions moving forward.
“We had had a big chance through Odsonne Edouard after seven minutes and then had a period of 15 minutes where we did well.
“It knocked us bit for five to 10 minutes and they got the second, but we regrouped again, changed our shape for the second-half and we found a better comfort in defending the spaces
“The key moments you have to defend better and unfortunately we didn’t.”
