Brendan Rodgers demands confident Celtic try to impose game on trip to Bayern Munich
German soil has been notably infertile for Celtic, who have never left the country with a victory, but the possibility of an autumn harvest has animated Brendan Rodgers on the approach to Wednesday evening’s Champions League group-stage tie in the Allianz Arena.
The double-header against Bayern offers Celtic the chance of a bonus, if one accepts the original premise that the Parkhead side would be engaged in a dogfight with Anderlecht for third place in Group B and a spot in the Europa League after Christmas.
It is not the view taken by Rodgers. “You never really take that approach. You go into every single game you play believing you can win, that you can get something.
“Football is not like basketball, where you maybe have 200-odd points. The ball can hit the ring and bounce out and that doesn’t necessarily have a big impact. In football it is slightly different and you never know what can happen in a game.
“We go into every game believing we can get something and Wednesday night will be no different. We know the challenge. We know the change of mentality in their team and their world-class players, but we want to fight to get a result. That’s what we will try and do.”
The possibility of greater reward was heightened by Celtic’s comfortable 3-0 win away to Anderlecht, which was the same margin achieved by Bayern at home to the Belgians. As they go into this encounter, both teams have three points, although Bayern have the better goal difference.
The ‘change of mentality’ at Bayern, mentioned by Rodgers, is a consequence of the dismissal of Carlo Ancellotti and the arrival of Jupp Heynckes, whose first league game in charge yielded a 5-0 home victory over Freiburg on Saturday. Heynckes, however, has ruled out Javi Martinez, Manuel Neuer and Juan Bernat, although he confirmed that Arturo Vidal had trained and would be part of his plans.
Rodgers, too, has had to deal with the absence of Jozo Simunovic, who suffered a recurrence of a hamstring strain and was left behind. When the Croatian-born central defender – who has now switched allegiance to Bosnia - has been paired with Dedryck Boyata, Celtic have looked significantly more capable in that department but the Bosnian’s chance of a sustained run in the team has been disrupted repeatedly by a variety of injuries.
“He’s still young but if you want to have a career in the top flight then you have to be ready to play two or three games a week consistently over a period of time, so it’s unfortunate for Jozo,” Rodgers said.
“I’m pretty clear in my mind what I’ll do. As a coach, you want that stability at your centre-half positions because you build your base around that set up and we’ve never been able to do that, which has meant trying at times to bring others in or change the shape.”
Rodgers’ options are not wholly satisfactory. Erik Sviatchenko is not in favour, Cristian Gamboa – who made his first club appearance of the season on Saturday - would represent a gamble at right-back, but to pull Nir Bitton back from midfield would be even more of a risk against the supremely predatory Robert Lewandowski.
The chances are then that Gamboa, who has at least played twice for Costa Rica, will come in and that Mikael Lustig will move infield to partner Boyata. Kieran Tierney, meanwhile, will have the opportunity to measure his impressive development at left-back against the trickery of Arjen Robben, although it would not be a revelation if the Dutch winger was switched to the left to face Gamboa.
Despite disposing of Ancelotti, Bayern are only two points behind Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga table. Heynckes’ recall had more to do with their ambitions in the European arena and the belief that, despite Paris Saint-Germain’s colossal outlay in transfers, the Champions League trophy can still be brought back to Bavaria.
“It is about winning for them, but it is also, like all of the big clubs, about how you win,” Rodgers said. “There is a demand on them here to win and they will be looking to go close in the competition this season but we have a duty to impose our game.
“The beauty of this team is that we rise to the challenge. Each game we go into, we try and put on a positive performance and see what we get from that. We may or may not have as much of the ball as normal but we can certainly be a threat.
“We have done that in European games and this is a great opportunity for us again to show that we have that nerve to play. Let’s see if we can take something from it.”
