BRENDAN RODGERS last night insisted his players were right to celebrate their qualification to the Champions League and that Roy Keane was hypocritical to criticise them for doing so.

The Parkhead boss shrugged off the comments made by the former Manchester United captain, who of course finished his career at Celtic, following the heavy defeat in Barcelona in the Champions League.

Keane had harsh words about the performance and the Scottish Champions' record in Europe, and also admitted he found it hard to understand why the players were so happy after they edged past Hapoel Be’er Sheva to reach the group stages

Keane, in his role as a television pundit, said: “Even when Celtic qualified for this group, the celebrations were way over the top. They scraped through and I thought they'd actually won the competition.

"People were hugging each other - the manager, the coaches, the players. They should be expecting to do well in this group.”

Rodgers had been made aware of what was said and felt the comments were over the top considering what he had seen how Keane behaved at the end of the Republic of Ireland’s successful European Championship qualifying campaign.

The Celtic boss said: “I have seen some bits of Roy. Listen, I respect his opinion. He has been a manager and he understands and he is an assistant now. So he has seen what it means in order to achieve something.

“When Ireland (Keane is assistant to Martin O’Neill) qualified for the Euros I think that was an achievement. I don’t think there were too many of the staff who stood not smiling, or hugging or cuddling or stuff.

“Where we are at, we went through six real tough qualification games. Until you actually come through it, until you actually experience the emotion and what it means to people.

“I am not talking Premier League top end, we are talking a country here that has to fight for the right to be in qualification. For the players who have to go through a whole season and then go through six qualifying games.

“Actually, the team that they beat in the final qualification round (Hapoel) were a good side. They can go to the San Siro and win 2-0 so they are no mugs. We won that. I think the players have every right, out of relief, out of ambition as players.

"Some of these players may never be at Roy’s level or the level of some other big players, but, for them, they have achieved something.

"So I think they have every right to celebrate success if success was to reach the Champions League.

“A lot of them have never been there before. Why shouldn’t they celebrate? The job over the next two or three years is to develop and improve that capability, to be there and to be better in their performance levels.”

Rodgers revealed he wanted to sign at least one player in January who would be capable of playing in the Champions League.

He wanted another attacking midfielder in the summer, which failed to happen, so does feel his squad lacks at least one more experienced first-team player.

Rodgers said: “That is something we tried to do in the summer but we just didn’t have that availability of the players we wanted.

"We came in and worked with virtually the same group of players, we brought in a few who could help us immediately but, of course, you can’t solve all the problems in one hit.

“However, we will certainly look to improve in January again because for what I’ve seen, and my experience here now, it is such an important window for the Scottish League in relation to the summer window.

“You get players in the January window to prepare yourself for winning the league and the next round of Champions League qualifiers. So it’s a reverse window to what happens down south.

“It can be a difficult window to get players in. You only want to do business when there is quality but it can be done. I brought Daniel Sturridge and Coutinho to Liverpool in January and they made a real difference to us.

“It’s about recruitment and trying to get the players in, and also to find out if they are available and affordable. That is the key.”