Brendan Rodgers praised the resistance of his Celtic players and insisted that they are still alive in the champions league play-off clash with Bayern Munich despite falling into a 2-1 defeat in the first leg.
The German giants scored twice in an explosion of four minutes on each side of halftime when Michael Olise and Harry Kane gave them a dominant 2-0 advantage.
But Celtic refused to fashed and managed to stay in the fight when Danizen Maeda withdrew a goal 11 minutes after time.
Aware that his team faces a difficult task in the second stage of next week in Munich, Rodgers urged them to have “regrets” after they returned to the tie.
“We are still in the tie and it was about staying alive in the game,” he said.
'We have another opportunity, so we go to Munich and we don't regret it.
Daizen Maeda nods home the goal that Celtic has given a thin lifeguard in the play-off draw
The Japanese star celebrates with her teammates after her goal reduced the deficit in Celtic Park
Brendan Rodgers looking for more from his players as they go in search of a beautiful equalizer
'This is a new level for many of the players and have made it absolutely great. But we go next week and see where it takes us.
'The tie is still in balance. It is still tight. If we defend strong and compete, we have shown that we can play and be a threat.
'We have shown a spirit in this competence and a spirit and mentality that we are improving and improving.
'Part of that is that you know you have to suffer at this level, but you have to have the ability to return. That is what is proud at the end of the game because you can always lose at this level.
'At this stage of competition, quality increases. But what should never happen is that you should never break. And the players were not broken.
'We will take the confidence of the last period of the game and I am already looking forward to arriving next Tuesday.
'It was always going to be a great challenge for us. We will always be the helpless in this draw. You see the level of Bayern, its quality.
'But we hung there a very, very hard side and gave them problems. So we will take confidence of that.
Michael Olise dismissed home an unstoppable shot to give Bayern Munich a 1-0 advantage
Harry Kane put 2-0 for German giants with a wonderful volley in the second half
The striker Kane escapes to celebrate after scoring for the Bayern Munich in minute 49
'Let's go next week. It is a great challenge, of course it is. But we are still in the tie. It will be difficult, but it is still a possibility (pass).
Celtic thought they had had the perfect beginning in the first 30 seconds when Nicolas Kuhn shot beyond Manuel Neuer, just because of his effort to be discarded because Adam Idah was out of play.
The Bayern seized the game when Olise and Kane attacked both sides of part time, but Maeda's late goal gave Celtic a lifeguard.
The Germans seemed stunned, and Rodgers believes that Celtic could well have taken an equalizer, such was the pressure they were applying.
“I thought we had the perfect beginning, but the goal did not happen,” he reflected. 'We were a bit passive in our pressure from the beginning, but we were stable without the ball.
“It was that we are more aggressive in the second half, but a player who does not leave without marking in a corner is possibly the best world football striker (Kane).
'With 2-0, we made the changes, but we were pressing in the last 25 minutes and we were more active at the upper end.
Then you see what it brought. Our football came to life and obtained the goal. Bayern was enduring in 2-1 and that is what we can take from the game.
Vincent Kompany warned his players that the draw is not over after Maeda's goal for Celtic
Michael Olise is congratulated by teammates after his goal in wonder just before the break
Maeda also believes that his late objective gives him Celtic hope of changing the draw.
Liberated to play after his appeal against a prohibition of two games, the end of the limb assured that Vincent Kompany's team still has a job to do.
“There is a big difference between going there with a 2-0 and a 2-1,” said Maeda. “So, I think it was a very important goal.”
When asked if he believed that Celtic could get a result in Germany, he added: 'Yes, of course. If we had played like this since the first minutes of the first half, then we could have had more opportunities. We will try to play as we did in the second half from the beginning in Germany.
'For this game, I obviously thought I'm not going to play. Then, I was trying to recover slowly towards the weekend game. However, in good sense it changed.
“It was not difficult to adjust the circumstances and it was good to obtain the goal.”