Brendan Rodgers hailed his Celtic side for showing courage under fire to claim a priceless Champions League point against Atalanta.
The Parkhead men banished their Dortmund demons by shutting out the reigning Europa League champs – and the top scorers in Serie A with a heroic rear-guard display. Rodgers was battered for his tactics in the 7-1 bashing by Borussia – but reposed with the perfect gameplan to secure a big result in Bergamo.
The Celtic gaffer saluted the bravery of his men and said: “You certainly need it against a team of this level. The concentration in the game was superb, and you need to have it. The talent that they have, you’re talking about the highest goalscorers in Italian football. So to come here, play with that concentration, that commitment, and still carry a threat, and the danger when we had the ball, was very, very pleasing.
“The players showed great courage, concentrated on what it was they had to do, to defend the box well, shift, slide. It was a really, really good point for us. I never doubted the players and the mentality. We responded straight after that game and won our next game. And then we come away to a team that are so, so efficient going forward, with the quality they have, the power that they have. But for our players to concentrate, stand up and fight and have that dignity in the performance, I was so proud of them.”
Rodgers had several heroes but Aston Trusty made a name for himself in a Celtic shirt with a super display at the heart of the defence. The centre back has stood in for injured Cameron Carter-Vickers in a more unfamiliar right sided role.
But he rose to the challenge along with partner Liam Scales to shut out one of the most in-form sides on the continent. Rodgers said: “I think that the guy’s filling in and doing amazing, playing off his unnatural side. He’s playing on that right side. Clearly, he’s a left-sided defender, so it’s a lot smoother if he’s on the other side.
“But what he gives us is a physicality, which is very important for us. He can win the race, so he won’t get outdone for pace. And you see him tonight, when balls come into the box, he made some big, big headers.
“He’s learning at this level as well. He’s new into these first Champions League performances. And certainly he will grow from that also.
“It gives all of them the confidence that you can defend against a top team. I’m not sure if that was pragmatic enough for people tonight. I don’t know. But we go out in every game to be structured and defend well.
“You know you’re going to get pushed back. But I think the confidence that it gives you when you can defend against the very best teams at that level, and that concentration, it’ll give them a huge boost.”
Rodgers insisted Celtic are ahead of the game in the race for the Champions League knockout stages after picking up a point from their two toughest away games against Dortmund and Atalanta. He said: “If you look at our opening three games, to have four points I’m so, so happy with that.
“The first game, they were absolutely brilliant. They had everything, offensive, defensive. I think the Dortmund game speaks for itself.
“We learned from that. We’ve come away to a top team with big, big talents and keep a clean sheet to gain a point. So the four points after three games is equal to what we had last year.
“We have five games to go. Hopefully we can look to our next game and look to gain more points to end up where we went to in January. But it’s a really, really big confidence boost for the team tonight.”