Rodgers – No need to be embarrassed

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers insists his team should not be embarrassed despite losing 7-0 to Barcelona during their Champions League clash on Tuesday night.

Rodgers’ men went into the game on a high after beating Rangers 5-1 on Saturday, but they were brought back down to earth at the Nou Camp.

Lionel Messi fired Barca into the lead in the third minute, but Moussa Dembele missed a penalty in the first-half, with Marc-Andre ter Stegen producing a stunning save.

Messi then went on to score a hat-trick as well as a brace from Luis Suarez and goals from Andres Iniesta and Neymar.

Tuesday’s loss was Celtic’s worst ever defeat in a European competition but Rodgers insists his side should not be left embarrassed.

He told Sky Sports: “We couldn’t have come to a more difficult place in world football.

This will be a brilliant learning season for us in the Champions League.

“Even the older ones will learn from that and that will make us a better team. Tonight is one of the tough nights that you take at this level.

“There can be no embarrassment as they do that to better teams than us. Professionally it is never nice when it happens.

We gave away the goal early but I thought we came back into the game. “I look technically at the game. You need to conserve the ball. Tonight clearly the top-class team won but I couldn’t have asked any more of my team.”