Brendan Rodgers has lavished praise on Celtic star Reo Hatate after his side’s stirring 3-1 Champions League win over RB Leipzig on Tuesday night.
The Hoops have struggled in Europe in recent years and many expected them to crash to defeat against one of the best teams in Germany.
Leipzig went ahead in the 23rd minute through Christoph Baumgartner, with Celtic then levelling through Nicolas-Gerrit Kuhn.
Kuhn then struck again in stoppage time at the end of the first half, with Hatate proceeding to score their third and final goal with 18 minutes left on the clock.
Celtic news: Brendan Rodgers was delighted after his side’s 3-1 Champions League win over RB Leipzig on Tuesday night
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It was a memorable night at the office for Celtic, who were fully deserving of their win.
And Rodgers singled out Hatate for praise, insisting the Japan international was ‘brilliant’ as the Hoops secured all three points.
“I thought he (Reo Hatate) was brilliant, I’ve got to say. He was aggressive,” he said.
“With Reo, when he’s pushing and pressing like that, his football comes alive.
“I thought he was exceptional.”
Celtic have dominated Scottish football over the past decade but victories in Europe have been few and far between.
Rodgers now believes his side are capable of competing in the Champions League – though insists the job isn’t done yet as his side look to reach the knockout stages.
“It gives you a real nice confidence for the team,” he continued.
“I think we’ve discovered in the last two games that we can be really competitive.
“If you’d said after the Dortmund game that we would have got four points from Atalanta and Red Bull Leipzig, probably not too many people would have said we would have done that.
“But I think we’ve discovered that we can play at the level. So it’s a great next step.
“To have seven points after four games, especially with the level of performance that we’ve played, gives us great encouragement.
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Celtic news: Reo Hatate scored the Hoops’ third and final goal in their Champions League win over RB Leipzig
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“It means in the next four games we can have a real confidence to go and make the play-off stage, but it’s still such a long way to go.”
When asked what pleased him in particular, Rodgers continued: “I think just the overall performance.
“I think we started the game with a real good confidence.
“20 minutes in I think we then concede the goal, we get rocked for a little bit and we’re a bit loose with our passing.
Celtic news: Brendan Rodgers believes his side’s victory over RB Leipzig proves they can compete in the Champions League
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“But I think the maturity in the team to then recover that, score the first goal and then continue to play, and I’m always especially on the pressing side of the game and the aggressive side of the game, I thought that we were absolutely outstanding in that.
“And I felt tonight, we had that combination of the Bratislava vibrancy and excitement in our attack and then the real tactical discipline in our defending.
“I think we pulled those two together to produce an outstanding team performance against a really,really , really good side who have only conceded five goals all season
So for us to have three and to have other opportunities to score, it was I tip my hat to the players.”