Celtic’s Champions League draw ramps up pressure on Brendan Rodgers as club hero told magic number to progress

Chris Sutton insists the pressure has been ramped up on Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers to deliver in the Champions League this season thanks to the draw and a set of fixtures which will see them kick off at home against a Slovan Bratislava side thumped 5-0 in their last game.

The former Hoops striker hero – part of Martin O’Neill’s side who went all the way to the UEFA Cup Final in Seville and took some major scalps in the Champions League – and Record Sport columnist admits his old club’s displays in Europe haven’t been good enough.

Now the Englishman wants to see Rodgers, backed in the transfer market, improve on that this season having been told that eight points could be enough to see teams progress to the playoff for the knockout stage in the revamped competition. Sutton told casinoapps.com: “Looking at the draw this year, with a new competition format, it has been kind to Celtic but, in many ways, that just magnifies the pressure because the expectation amongst the fan base will be higher.

“They will want to see an improvement in their team in Europe, and these fixtures represent a real opportunity for Celtic to deliver that. The first match is against Slovan Bratislava at home. They just lost their last game in the Slovakian League 0-5 - the expectation on Celtic to beat them will be absolutely huge. It's all about the opportunity to get off to a flying start and to get some points on the board as quickly as possible. An opening fixture against Slovan Bratislava is the perfect opportunity to do that. It’s the kind of fixture you want to help you build momentum. Win and carry that on to the next one.

“Football is an extreme game. Draw or lose, and it could be an uphill battle before you’ve even really started