Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Brendan Rodgers staying upbeat despite Celtic falling to Europa League defeat against RB Leipzig

Brendan Rodgers at full time (AP Photo/Jens Meyer)
Brendan Rodgers at full time (AP Photo/Jens Meyer)

BRENDAN RODGERS claimed there were a “lot of positives” to take from Celtic’s 2-0 Europa League defeat to RB Leipzig in the Red Bull Arena on Thursday night.

Hampered by injuries or suspension to several of his top players, the Northern Irishman brought in Cristian Gamboa, Jozo Simunovic, Eboue Kouassi, Ryan Christie and Lewis Morgan.

But after an encouraging start to the Group B match, the visitors were punished for defensive lapses, first on the half-hour mark by striker Matheus Cunha and again four minutes later by attacker Bruma.

The defeat left the Scottish champions in third place with three points from nine, with leaders Salzburg on nine and RB Leipzig second with six.

But Hoops boss Rodgers said: “There were a lot of positives from the game. We started very, very well, imposed our style on the game.

“After 25 minutes Ralf (Rangnick, RB Leipzig boss) changed the system to match up with our diamond.

“I felt we were finding the spaces well and getting in good positions. We had a great chance with Odsonne Edouard after seven minutes. It was a big chance at this level.

“And we had a period of 15 minutes after that when we made a mistake from a cross coming in and at this level you get punished for that.

“It knocked us a 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.

“We had a chance late on. If we get it to 2-1, it makes it an interesting finish but we didn’t quite manage to get the goal.

“Some of our play was very good but key moments in the game we have to defend better and unfortunately we didn’t do that.”

Rodgers hailed the quintet that were brought into the Celtic side in Germany.

“The players that came in tonight did fantastic,” he said.

“They haven’t been playing a great deal and would get great experience from that. Lewis Morgan came in and gave everything in the game.

“Christie, Kouassi, these boys came in and gave everything and showed moments of quality.

“It’s unfortunate we have so many injuries but it’s not the fault of the players. They gave absolutely everything.”