BRENDAN Rodgers is well aware that Celtic’s opening Champions League group game against Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday night may not unfold as he wishes. The quality of the opposition, as well as memories of last year’s 7-0 loss to Barcelona, tell him as much.

“Tune in on Tuesday night,” he said in a message to those down south still wondering why he is mucking around in the backwater that is Scottish football. “And then once you see the score……watch the highlights.”

He’s laughing as he says it but it’s an acknowledgement that, at this level, even the most organised and expertly coached of sides can sometimes still end up with a sore face. Clubs that spend as much as PSG have done this summer tend to expect an instant return on their investment.

The result might not be to Rodgers’ liking but he hopes at least his integrity will remain intact. He sprinkles his conversation with liberal mentions of the phrase “without fear”, a motto that applies both to his players as well as himself.

Just as the Celtic team must be bold as they try to suppress the combined threat of Neymar, Kylian Mbappe, Edinson Cavani and the rest, so must Rodgers remain true to his own coaching philosophy, even in the face of the fiercest adversity.

That has not always been the case. He can recall in an instant one occasion where he eschewed those values to play a more pragmatic style that he didn’t truly believe in.

He lost the game and soon lost his job. Rodgers vowed never to make that compromise again.

“I know the game when I didn’t play without fear,” he recalled. “I was at Reading, we were away to QPR at Loftus Road and we were losing. The home fans were singing, ‘you’re getting sacked in the morning’ and then the Reading fans joined in! So the whole stadium was singing it. So that night we lost 4-1 and I was watching my team – bless them – and it wasn’t a representation of me. It was 4-4-2, it was stiff and static. And that was my fault.

“It was certainly a moment early on in my career that was important. I work a certain way as a coach, I have done since I was 20 years of age.

“With experience now, I know clearly that if you’re going to down as a manager – and you normally do at some point – at least go down with your own vision. That was a big moment for me, probably the first like that.

“With experience you learn to admire coaches and managers who do things in different ways. I have a preference to how I work. It doesn’t mean it’s right or wrong but it’s how I do it.

“That way is to play with no fear, impose in an attacking way and fundamentally to defend with aggression.”

Defending is something Celtic will likely need to do a lot of on Tuesday night, their task made more difficult by the injuries to Erik Sviatchenko and Dedryck Boyata. One bookmaker has been offering odds as high as 13/1 on a home victory at Parkhead, a price that underlines the enormity of the task facing Rodgers and his players. But the manager is not without hope.

“It will be very difficult to stop them but it’s a great challenge for us,” he added. “They are a team full of world-class players with great experience. And they’re in the competition looking to win it. That’s why that investment is there and that’s been their path for the last few years.

“Going into these matches brings out a different part of our game. Domestically we dominate, we counter-press, we get the ball and we create lots of chances. At [European] level we don’t have so many chances. This competition gives us the chance to work on a different side of our game, to counter attack. You won’t always have it your own way.

“There’s a wee bit of pain in there for supporters and players as you’re so used to dominating. But it’s the level.

“It’s understanding that you at times have to close off the middle of the pitch and set yourself up to break into spaces.

“That’s something we don’t have to do so much domestically. But at this level of competition it’s important that you can do it. And when you can, you have to stay calm and work it.

“Our identity is important. Of course you have to respect the opponent and the qualities that they have. But I’ve always been about playing without fear and insuring they know they are in a game.

“I always want us to really test the opponent. See how they feel under pressure. When you’re breathing right up against them and if you can touch them then you’re pressing them. If they get out of the press then that’s okay. And they’ll do it a few times. But keep going back.”

That thumping in the Nou Camp this time last year shows how hard it can be but Rodgers believes valuable lessons were learned that night.Celtic were a lot more streetwise over the rest of the campaign – claiming draws with Man City, twice, and away to Borussia Moenchengladbach – and the manager thinks that will stand them in good stead.

“In the Barcelona game out there I felt we were a bit wee intimidated,” he revealed. “We offered them too much respect. But now we’ve had a year together and we play without fear wherever we go.

“And our performances showed that in the remainder of the competition. So hopefully that will be the same this time.

“Working together over the last year has allowed us to get better at it. The players maybe have a better understanding of the game and way of playing.”

Goalkeeper Craig Gordon, who didn’t play in the Nou Camp but started in the other five group games, believes as much, too.

“We’ve been together longer, we’ve worked at the style of play and the formations the manager wants us to play,” he said. “From that point of view, tactically, we’re better than we were at the start of the last campaign.

“We’re going to have to defend well and counter-attack at times. We have players that can do that. We’ve got good pace in the team and we have guys who can finish.

“It’s not a bad thing for us, we can play that style and it’s not something we get to do very often in Scotland.

“We’re not daunted, we just want to go and play. We believe in our own team to be able to handle that and try to do something in the game ourselves. It doesn’t matter who’s in the other team, we do into every thinking we have a chance of winning it.”

If Tuesday night was a game of Top Trumps, then in the category of European Cup triumphs Celtic still come out on top, with the star on the shirt to prove it.

“That’s right!” added Rodgers, his eyes lighting up. “Follow the star, that’s it! Come to us and you get a star. There you only get 600 grand a week….”