Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has insisted that his players don’t need to be embarrassed by their 7-0 loss to Barcelona, saying that the Catalans have handed out similar drubbings to much better teams.
The Scottish champions were given a footballing master class by Barcelona on Tuesday evening in the Champions League as a hattrick from Lionel Messi, two from Luis Suarez and a goal apiece from Andres Iniesta and Neymar condemned Celtic to their largest ever European defeat.
The Bhoys missed a significant chance to level the tie when Barcelona led 1- 0, when striker Moussa Dembele saw a penalty-kick saved by Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
And Rodgers has identified the failed conversion of the spot-kick as a turning point in the match, with the coach identifying the match as a tough contest to prepare for.
The former Liverpool man is adamant that his team shouldn’t be embarrassed by the loss though, and should treat the match as a learning curve.
According to the Daily Mail the coach said: “Professionally it is never nice when that happens. I thought in the first period of the game our set up and organisation was good.
“We gave away a goal very early, which is not what you want to do here. But we came back into the game and when we started to get some belief and confidence, we began to pass the ball and create opportunities.
“There is a massive moment in the first half. If you get the penalty and get to 1-1, you can make the crowd a bit nervous after their weekend loss. We lost the second goal very quickly after that, which was disappointing.
“We knew the next goal after half-time was going to be very important. They got the third goal then the combination of tiredness, freshness and quality showed. This is a competition which is going to be a brilliant learning season for us.
“Tonight is one of those nights you have to take.’There can be no embarrassment because they have done it to better teams than ourselves.
“It doesn’t matter that they are the team they are. It’s tough to take when you lose so many goals. The players couldn’t have come to a more difficult place after playing such an intense game at the weekend.
“There was hardly any preparation to face a team who beat you up with the ball at times.’The last 15 minutes felt quite long. The young players will learn from it.
“Barcelona have done it to much better teams than us. But at the end of the game you are frustrated and disappointed.”
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