The Celtic gameplan to 'hurt' Bayern Munich as Brendan Rodgers declares 'we're going to make it difficult'
Brendan Rodgers says his Celtic side can defy the odds and cause damage to Bayern Munich in the Champions League.
The Hoops are huge underdogs going into their play-off tie with the first-leg at Parkhead on Wednesday night. But Rodgers is convinced they can hold their own against the Bundesliga giants - and shock them with an electrifying Celtic Park atmosphere..
He watched his team rout Raith Rovers 5-0 in the Scottish Cup thanks to a Daizen Maeda hat-trick. And the Celtic boss admits the banned Japanese forward will be a huge miss. But before Harry Kane and Co arrive in Glasgow in midweek, Rodgers insists the Scottish Champions can inflict pain on the Germans. He said: “I don’t have any doubt that we can hurt Bayern. We’ve got goals in us, we’ve shown that at all levels.
“We can score goals. They’ve obviously got threats but it’s the knock-out stages of the Champions League. Every team has big quality and I’ve been up against some of these teams, so I know how they play.
“Vincent Kompany will have played against my teams at Swansea, Leicester and Liverpool so he’ll know how my teams work. It’s going to be a fantastic game and I’ll look forward to it. It’s my job to convince the players that we can get a positive result.
“We’ve shown it - and can take confidence from - our qualification to get to this point over the course of eight games in the Champions League. We’ve shown the template of playing at home against RB Leipzig and away against Atalanta - and that combination of both can get us results.
“We know we’re up against some fantastic players and a team who is top of a top league, high on confidence. But in here on Wednesday night, it will be super-charged. There will be 60,000 souls with us and we can take energy from that. We’ll look to make it really difficult for Bayern and see where the game takes us.”
Maeda was outstanding against the Fifers, with his third goal of a treble his 50th for the club.
He’ll miss the first-leg against Bayern after a red-card picked up in their last European game with Young Boys.
Rodgers knows how big a loss he’ll be but heaped praise on Maeda for filling the void left by Kyogo Furuhashi who was sold in January.
He said: “Daizen has been great. You can see he’s a striker. He’s a goalscorer, wherever he plays along the front-line. You can see his numbers, if you look back at his time at Yokohama and with Japan.
“He scores different types of goals. He might not be a traditional number nine but he’s mobile, he makes good runs, has good movement - and he can finish.
“He’s a wonderful reference for our team, in terms of hard work, mentality and pressing. He’s now getting goals regularly and I’m so pleased for him. He’ll be a big miss for us on Wednesday but we can’t overthink it. He’s not available but he’ll be ready for the games after that.”
Celtic put five past Raith in the cup, with Yang and Luke McCowan also grabbing goals. Rodgers gave young defender Dane Murray a start and he shone as the holders made light work of it against Barry Robson’s men.
He said: “These games can be difficult if your attitude isn’t right but we were outstanding in the game. The team was exceptional. We made nine changes but had fluency and fluidity in the game. The quality of goals was excellent but before that it was about the hunger of the team. That takes work and for a team playing every three days to have that will and desire makes me very proud.”
Rodgers might have faced an injury sweat ahead of the Bayern Munich tie when midfielder Paulo Bernardo limped off in the first half yesterday. But he’s optimistic that the Portuguese ace will shake off a knee knock to be available.
He said: “Hopefully Paulo will be OK. I’ve just spoken to our medical head and they don’t think it’s bad. He felt a slight twist in a tackle but he should be OK.”
