BRENDAN RODGERS last night admitted Celtic's chastening defeat at the hands of a brilliant Borussia Moenchengladbach proved his team lacked qualities to consistently compete in the Champions League.

The Northern Irishman had no complaints about was a deserved 2-0 win for the Germans and refused to criticise his players after what was a tough night for them.

Rodgers didn't learn anything new about his side, as he has always believed his squad was short of quality, something which was proved in this defeat.

The Celtic boss said: "They will learn from this. Sometimes, no matter how good they might be, there are still elements that we need to be able to compete consistently at this level.

"Right from day one here we are in a process of building something here.

"We have done brilliantly to qualify for this level and have given absolutely everything.

"But sometimes, as you can see, teams are better than us. No disrespect to our players, they gave everything. But this is a good side, they have a World Cup winner there in midfield and a number of very good players.

"So, yes, you have to hold your hands up and be honest and say we lost to the better team.

"There are certain attributes you need and of course that does cost you money. That will be up to the club and our recruitment to look and try and find these players.

"We know that availability and affordability figures, but it is something that will happen over a period of time and it is something we will look to do over the coming years.

"That’s the process. It won’t happen overnight. We have to find a way of performing consistently at this level. There are certain attributes you need but you can’t click your fingers and expect it to just to happen.”

Two goals in the second-half, from Lars Stindl and Andree Hahn, did for Celtic in a game which the German dominated from the opening minutes.

Rodgers said: "The best team won. There is no argument about that.

“My players gave absolutely everything against a top side and our only disappointment would be the two goals.

“They didn’t create so much, even though they looked dangerous at times on counter attack.We gifted them two goals really.

“The players gave everything into the game. We set out to press them, but you see with that level of player and technique that, if you are not quite there with your press, they can play through or around it.

"We had some good spells, but we were beaten by a technically-strong, fast team with good quality. We have no complaints."

Kolo Toure has been superb since his summer arrives and yet was culpable for both goals.

There was, however, no chance of him being reprimanded by his manager.

Rodgers said: "There will be no-one more disappointed tonight than Kolo. He is experienced enough to know he should deal with the first one.

"The second one was unfortunate. The guy has got away and finished it brilliantly with a toe-poke finish.

"Again, it is why he has been in the game for so long – because he hurts and is an honest player. Tonight will hurt Kolo, but he is also a warrior as well.

"He is a guy who is very, very mentally tough and he will recover. But we go again tomorrow and give everything for the weekend."

Rodgers now has the task of lifting his players for the Rangers League Cup semi-final on Sunday.

He said: "The goals came from mistakes and that is the frustration. If you don’t concede the goals you give yourself a chance to win the game as it progresses.

"Some of them were individually outstanding. I thought Scott Brown showed he is a real player at this level. One or two of the other boys did really well.

"But mistakes get punished heavily at this level. We have seen it in every game that we have played. If you make mistakes against top players with outstanding quality they will hurt you."