BRENDAN RODGERS will look to the transfer market as he looks to rectify Tuesday night's shock defeat to Lincoln Red Imps in Gibraltar.

Celtic will be expected to comfortably see off the part-timers when they host them next Wednesday night at Celtic Park, but Rodgers is well aware that he needs significant reinforcements if he is to steer Celtic through the qualifiers and into the group stages of the Uefa Champions League.

“I think there will be one or two more changes,” said Rodgers. “It is still very early so we are still looking and assessing the squad, even though we have these competitive games. I have always felt we would need a few more in. The club are working hard trying to help us and do that and let’s see if we can do that over the coming weeks. “

The Celtic manager has had three weeks to work with the current squad, with Moussa Dembele, Rodgers’ first signing, featuring against Lincoln Red Imps. Other than that, though, it was a familiar looking team on Tuesday night – and with familiar deficiencies. Efe Ambrose was culpable for the concession of the only goal of the game, although the Celtic manager pointed to the surface rather than to the track record of the Nigerian internationalist, who has been linked with a move to Fenerbahce.

“We were playing on the astroturf pitch which wasn’t ideal, we were playing in temperatures into the mid-30s, we dominated the game but we failed to take our chances,” said the Celtic manager. “They had one clearance up the pitch, it bounced awkwardly on the astroturf and the guy goes in and scores. It is disappointing but in the course of these qualifying games, the second legs at Celtic Park were always going to be very important.

“We had lots of chances and that, having watched the game and looking at it from the side, it will be a totally different game when we get to Parkhead. The astroturf was awkward, it which wasn’t one of the more modern ones, was a real leveller. But give credit to them, they played with 5 at the back, 5-4-1, and we couldn’t break them down. When we did we hit the crossbar four times, and their keeper made some great saves and that happens sometimes in football.”

Asked whether he was surprised that Uefa allowed Champions League level games to be played on plastic surfaces, Rodgers voiced his concern although it is to his credit that he did not look to use the playing surface as an excuse for what was a desperately poor performance.

“You would think in that competition, it would be the case and this is a real old-school one, as well,” he said. “When you pass the rubber is popping up on to you. It is not ideal but we can’t have an excuse.”

Celtic play Wolfsburg on Saturday afternoon before gearing up for what has become a second leg heavy with pressure, rather than the straightforward tie that many would have anticipated at this stage.

"We have got our first game at Parkhead at the weekend against Wolfsburg and I am really looking forward to it and I know the players are looking forward to it," said Rodgers. "They are all major tests for us but we need that because we are into competitive games very early and we have that second leg next week. Great fixtures – Leicester, Barcelona, Inter Milan – it is a great pre-season of games."