BRENDAN Rodgers said Celtic looked like a “proper” Champions League team last night – even as defeat against Bayern Munich condemned them to the Europa League at best beyond Christmas. Unlike their mauling in Munich, the Parkhead side matched their much vaunted Bavarian visitors stride by stride during this Group B encounter, only to succumb to a header from Javi Martinez header with quarter of an hour to play, shortly after Callum McGregor’s strike had cancelled out Kingsley Coman’s first-half opener. The French winger’s strike arrived against the run of play and with what appeared to be the use of an arm but the Celtic manager refused to make captial from that but simply praised an excellent Parkhead performance.

“The disappointment in the changing room shows you how well we played,” said Rodgers. “The level of composure and quality we played with, I was very proud of the team. We caused them lots of problems. Individually, of course, they are world class and you can see that at times. But overall we looked like a proper team who are developing at this level."

There was tacit criticism for the defensive unit which gave up both goals and praise for a goal which will live long in the memory. “We are disappointed with the goals,” he added. “You get punished at this level but the first goal, we’ve got to deal with it, as simple as that. We’ve got good pressure on their goalkeeper, our positioning is good, so we’ve got to head it and defend it.

“Callum can keep the ball," he added." People maybe wonder why he played in front of others, but he is a player who looks after the ball. The goal was a wonderful example of two Scottish players. If a European player had done what James did, everyone would be raving about it. It was an incredible skill to make the pass and then Callum does what he does."

Rodgers said the result would provide a massive boost to his side’s confidence levels. While he said the club will now focus on going “as far as we possibly can”, first they would have to make sure that they reach they finish above Anderlecht to clinch their berth in the last 32 of that competition.

“It’s a huge step for their confidence," he said. "Apart from the two goals we conceded I thought defensively we were very, very good. When we had the ball we found the gaps and played very, very well. Now what we have to do is go on and finish off over these next two games. PSG will be a big test for us again but we come back here for the final group game and we want to achieve what we set out to achieve, which is to have European football after Christmas. If we can do that it’s a great marker and a great measure of how the players are progressing.

“The idea is to get there, first and foremost," he added. "There are still some crack teams who will be involved in that competition after Christmas. So for us we want to get there and get there playing a level of football that can allow us to go as far as we possibly can."