A year ago, affirmation of how Brendan Rodgers wanted Celtic to play was delivered against Manchester City.

Unbeaten prior to their arrival at Celtic Park, Pep Guardiola’s side found themselves in a match against Rodgers’s side with the teams eventually settling for a point apiece after the intriguing drama of a 3-3 draw.

Key to that performance was Moussa Dembele.

The French striker netted twice in that game but it was his power, his rawness, his clinical finishing that announced his arrival on the most celebrated stage of all.

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Glasgow Times: Moussa Dembele celebrates with Kieran Tierney

Injury has derailed Dembele somewhat over the last six months but in all liklihood the striker, called into the provisional full France squad yesterday, will make his first start in this season’s Champions League campaign.

Dembele showed a glimpse of the form that attracted numerous suitors last term with a devastating performance in Aberdeen last week that suggested his match fitness and sharpness are back. His challenge now, just as it is for Celtic as a whole, is to go and showcase that in the demanding environs of the Champions League.

“He’s a boy who is quite relaxed about it all,” said Rodgers. “You saw it when he scored at Aberdeen.

“He just has a great belief in his ability and he understands. He is very respectful. He wants to do well but he understood that during the time he was out injured, Leigh was very, very good.

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“We had a couple of conversations, just reinforcing the work and mentality needed to get back to his level.

“It’s just been a process with him - dipping him in for 30 minutes, then a bit longer. Then, of course, at Aberdeen he was absolutely outstanding.

“He is a fantastic player. He has come here to improve and be better and he has definitely done that over the course of the last 17 months.”

Against City last year, Celtic did not allow the English side. There was a whirlwind start to the game with the intensity and pace immediate form kick-off. Replicating that is the aim, but it is an ambition that Rodgers wants to realise over the long haul.

Much has been made in recent weeks of the Celtic manager’s reluctance to play in a game of containment. There is a contempt with Rodgers when he uses the word ‘pragmatism’, a philosophy that is not in keeping with the manner in which he wants Celtic to play.

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Imposing that on Scottish teams have proven to devastatingly effective – his team equalled a 100-year old record on Saturday by going unbeaten for 62 domestic games – but there is a realisation that the pressing, aggressive manner in which Celtic play is far more difficult to achieve against the heavyweights of European football.

It has been evident in the losses to Barcelona, to PSG, to Bayern over in Germany a fortnight ago. And yet, if they are to ever to grow into a position where they can compete at Champions League level, Rodgers wants them to go stick to the philosophy that he believes in.

“It’s my job in my time here to convince them they can go in and play how we play,” he said. “It’s not naive. It’s what we believe in. Eventually, we will get the rewards for that.

“I had a very early learning experience in my coaching career when I was at Watford in my first job as a manager and Swansea City, ironically enough, were high flying – they were unbeaten in 16 games going in it.

“I wasn’t that long in there. And we were in that sort of way when we were pragmatic, and sat in, and had a defensive block and played on the counter attack. We won 2-0. And it was one of the worst games I’ve been involved in! And to make it even worse someone handed me the performance of the week award.

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“I knew at that point that I’d put a life’s work in to developing a certain way of playing and I had a commitment to that. When you are linked in to something like that it’s hard to say ‘let’s just sit in and wait for the game’. When I hear people who have no commitment, talking about being pragmatic…hold on a minute, what about all the other times you really enjoy our football? Pep Guardiola if he is playing really exciting football he’s not all of a sudden in one game going to sit back and be pragmatic. That’s not what he believes in, it’s not how he works.

“It’s not my belief in how to play. That’s not to say there is a wrong way, everything is about preference. But what you can’t do is just snap your fingers. If you develop a model of work, every single day of your life, on aggression and pressing, developing the game, different shapes, and then in a one-off game say ‘right, everything we told you, forget about it, just come back and sit in and wait for the game’.”

Delivery of a major scalp would provide an affirmation on Rodgers’ style at the club.

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Martin O’Neill done is with Juventus, Porto, Liverpool and a credible draw at Celtic Park against Bayern Munich while Gordon Strachan enjoyed success against Manchester United and AC Milan. Neil Lennon’s greatest moment as Celtic manager came when he led the club to a win over Barcelona, widely hailed as the best team in the world, in the week the club celebrated their 125th anniversary.

Rodgers big one is still to come but he maintains that so long as the team are playing the way he wants them to that it will come.

“I don’t need it,” he said. “I think we all want it. We would love to have that but I have an inherent belief in what we do and hopefully we have seen that in 17 months what it can do for us as a club and as a team. At this level of course it is remarkably difficult to do that but we must keep working towards that. That is the next step for us.

“That is what we are working towards. When it comes, you just don’t know. But it is certainly what we are working towards. We want to impose our own style in a competition of this level that gets results.”