Brendan Rodgers has words for Scottish football as Celtic boss reacts to glamour Champions League pairing

The Scottish champions now play either Real Madrid or Bayern Munich in the knockout play-off round while Villa are spared such a challenging assignment and have qualified directly for the last 16 of the Champions League in the first year of this new format.

A “proud” Rodgers is a fan of the set up, which has delivered such an attractive – if daunting – clash next month. The draw will be made on Friday. “Clearly it’s a great reward for the work that the team and the club have done,” he said. “We are playing top level teams.”

He added: “I have enjoyed playing different teams, going to different cities. There was a real level of excitement tonight, people watching on screens and wondering who they're going to get.

"I am just proud of how we have performed," he added. "Scotland gets a wee bit of stick for its football but you can clearly see teams have the courage to play despite having nowhere near the resource level of teams in the Premier League. The format is really good, I have really enjoyed it.”

He stressed Celtic have already demonstrated they can compete despite the often lop-sided financial circumstances. This was plain to see at Villa Park, with Ollie Watkins, who scored once and missed a penalty, the subject of an offer from Arsenal of around £60 million on the day of the game. Celtic have just sold their star striker Kyogo Furuhashi to French club Rennes for around £10 million.

“I think we showed that, apart from the Dortmund game when we were well beaten on the night, we learned from that set back,” said Rodgers.

“We have gone away to Atalanta and kept a clean sheet and come here tonight and we were in the game. We know it’s Real Madrid or Bayern Munich in the next round so that will be a huge challenge for us.

“But we are building confidence at this level and showing that we are a team that can play and can work well and make it really difficult for the top teams."

Villa might not be quite on Real or Bayern’s level but they flexed their muscles against Celtic, scoring two second half goals to finally overcome the Scottish champions. The outcome was not confirmed until the very dying seconds, when Morgan Rogers completed his hat trick. Celtic had levelled before half-time following Adam Idah’s double after two early goals from Rogers had threatened to blow the visitors away.

“It was a great game to be involved in,” said Rodgers. “The word that comes into my head at the moment right now is pride. We were up against a team that’s been at the highest level of the Premier League. But we played with so much courage in the game.

“We actually started the game well and showed confidence and authority with the ball. But they got the first goal and then a quick second goal. Then there was a question asked of us as a team, in terms of spirit, mentality and character - everything about you at this level.

“But the players continued to play and we got in contention. We got our aggression back in the game and that gave us the opportunity. Obviously we scored two very good goals and then took the game to injury time with it in the balance. So it was a great effort by the players.

”We end up disappointed to lose. But we played a big part in a really good game. We were really competitive at this level.”

One sour note was a smoke bomb thrown onto the pitch from the away fans in the aftermath of Celtic’s equaliser seven minutes before half time. “I’m not even thinking about that, I’m just thinking about football,” said Rodgers.

The manager praised Idah, whose double was a good way to convince people he can replace Kyogo as the club's principal striker. “He obviously tired because he hasn’t played so much, but those were two big goals for him,” said Rodgers. “And actually how we created the goals was very good. His movement into the box, he has made a couple of runs and had to adjust to finish.

“The second one is a great team goal when he was in the box for the square pass and made the finish. So he was a handful on the night and that will be big for his confidence.”