Rodgers says Celtic ‘short of experience and quality’ to compete in Champions League

Updated 29/11/2023 at 10:51 GMT

Celtic’s Champions League campaign came to end on Tuesday following a disappointing defeat at the hands of Lazio. The Scottish champions remain winless in this year’s competition after five matches and Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers believes that a lack of quality and experience is the main issue for the squad. Celtic will finish bottom of their group and miss out on a UEFA Europa League place.

Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers

Image credit: Getty Images

Brendan Rodgers said that Celtic are “short of experience and quality” to compete in the UEFA Champions League after they were eliminated from European competition on Tuesday.

Celtic needed to win to stay in contention of qualifying for either the Champions League knockout stages or the UEFA Europa League.

However, the loss means they will finish bottom of the group and manager Rodgers highlighted where improvements need to be made.

“I think I’ve said before that this level is about experience and quality and that’s where we’re short at this level,” he told TNT Sports.

“Hopefully over the couple of [transfer] windows forthcoming in January and the summer we can develop this squad and improve this squad and get those players back fit and then we can have a strong squad to compete.”

Celtic have failed to reach the knockout stages of the Champions League since the 2012-13 campaign.

Rodgers is disappointed that his team have been dumped out of Europe for the remainder of the season but wants them to try and secure a win on the final matchday against Feyenoord.

“Sadly throughout the competition from the very first game we’ve been missing players who are important to us and for us in this competition at this level we need to have those available,” Rodgers explained.

“That’s always the objective [to remain in Europe] when you come into a European tournament with Celtic but sadly it wasn’t to be.

“But we’ve got one more game and we want to finish on a high and then we can reflect from there.”

Looking back at the performance against Lazio, Rodgers added: “We were right in the game until the last 10 minutes.

“First half we didn’t progress the ball well enough or quick enough. We kept the ball but we needed to play forward and be a bit braver.

“Second half was better and it looked as the half wore on that we were nice and strong defensively, and looked we could be the team to go and win the game. But we have given away two disappointing goals.

“The players gave everything. It’s a challenging level for us especially with so many injuries.”

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