Brendan Rodgers is taking Celtic and himself beyond levels of which Ange could only dream – Keith Jackson

There will, of course, be accusations of recency bias. And they’ll probably not be without some basis.

Martin O’Neill’s Celtic, for example, more than held their own on the European stage before, during and after that ground trembling run to Seville. Gordon Strachan would go on to create fairytale memories of his own with his seven dwarves routine and Neil Lennon will always have Barcelona.

In a different way, Walter Smith’s journey to the UEFA Cup Final in Manchester involved some extraordinary performances and will go down in history as a case study for management at its finest. That Rangers side had no real right to go as far as it did other than the fact that the man in charge of putting it together was a borderline genius in footballing terms.

When Giovanni van Bronckhorst matched Smith’s achievement in 2022, some of the high water marks hit throughout that run also managed to take the breath away. Ibrox on Thursday nights under the lights became an other worldly experience. All of this is true.

But, even so, when taken in isolation, what we witnessed on Tuesday night under the lights at Celtic Park feels as impressive and as comprehensive as anything seen during these 21st century ram-raids across the Continent.

If Celtic’s performance the previous time out against Atalanta in Bergamo was their coming of age performance on the Champions League stage, the display they put on against RB Leipzig took this new found maturity to a completely different level.

The emphatic nature of the 3-1 scoreline doesn’t come close to telling the whole story. This was a win so complete and a performance so polished that, at times, it managed to take the breath away. And, for boss Brendan Rodgers, it looked very much like vindication