Inside Brendan Rodgers' Celtic team talk after Bayern sickener that blew Alistair Johnston away

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Alistair Johnston should have been a broken man as he sat deep in the bowels of the Allianz Arena after a soul-destroying injury-time exit from the Champions League. But instead he was bursting with pride.

As Johnston listened to Brendan Rodgers deliver a full-time team-talk on the back of a crushing depareture from Europe’s premier competition, he knew this group had put Celtic back on the Champions League map. He truly believes this was the reason Rodgers returned to Paradise for a second spell and Johnston knew immediately as the manager delivered his speech that he was not finished yet. And neither is the Canadian full-back.

Performances and credibility had been the glaring omission from Rodgers’ CV during a glittering first spell at Parkhead. He has always dominated domestically but making his mark on Europe’s top club competition had proved evasive until this season.

Rodgers qualified out of the group stages for the first time before Celtic’s dream run was cruelly ended by Alphonso Davies hit a sickening 94th- minute leveller. The Scottish champions bowed out with their heads held high and Johnston knows that Rodgers will want to try and improve again and go one step further again.

“That’s what the manager came back for,” the Canadian international claimed. “He wanted to progress this club to this level.

“That was one of the biggest things that gave him a reason to want to come back because he had accomplished everything domestically up here in Scotland. So that was his big aim that he didn’t want to just be dominant domestically and he wanted to take that next step.

“So just talking and listening to him after the match, how proud he was of our group. It’s the same feeling that I feel. It was an impressive performance. We just went toe-to-toe with Bayern Munich at the Allianz.”

Johnston also wants Celtic to make full use of their Allianz anguish to kick on again and become a major European force. It was their first time in the knockout stages of the Champions League since 2013, under Neil Lennon. Johnston also wants that level to become a regular occurrence.

“That’s got to be the plan,” Johnston insisted. "I think the gaffer’s going to be very strong on that. So it’s up to us as players to now realise, OK, we’re able to play at this level.

“Now it’s about how can we turn a last-minute chance like that into something for us? But no, I’m just really proud of this group.

There is no doubt the bravery they showed in Bavaria was a coming of age performance for this Celtic team. Johnston acknowledged: “Yeah, this is one of the world meccas in a way. It’s unbelievable to see me walk out there, just the number of people out there and everything.

"But again, that Atalanta match really set the foundation to be able to do this. I think that’s what we learned.

‘Again, as difficult as that Dortmund match was and we’ve talked about it, that set the framework to be able to go out there and have the confidence to defend our box and do all the dirty things and little things.

“Again, that’s our 10th match in the Champions League this year. “That’s a lot of football at its highest level. So we’ve learned a lot and hopefully we can continue that into next year.”

The Bayern display was also night and day from their last Bundesliga battering, when they lost 7-1 away to Borussia Dortmund in the group stage. It was painful but Johnston thinks this Celtic team and squad is much better for that experience.

He explained: “It’s funny, after the match you probably heard a lot of cliché things in terms of we’ve got to learn from this and all that. It is just clichés if you’re just saying it to say it.

“But for us they weren’t buzzwords. No, seriously, we’re going to look at this and we’re going to break down the video and realise, OK, what did we do wrong? What did we need to do better?

“And understand that Europe, especially away, it’s not going to be like a domestic game. You can’t always be so open and expect to get results against these top teams.

“I think that we matured in terms of our approach. We weren’t so rash, we weren’t so emotional in certain moments feeling like we’ve been under the cosh for five minutes here. I thought we were very stable mentally in that aspect in terms of not getting worked up, because it’s not something we’re used to domestically.

“We don’t normally go five, 10-minute spells without getting out of our half. But I thought that we showed such composure and maturity in terms of defending.”

Now all focus is on the domestic scene. They head to Hibs tomorrow where they will be looking to maintain their 13-point lead at the top. Johnston is well aware that winning the title is the first step to Celtic getting back into next season’s Champions League qualifying. The Celtic favourite warned: “But yeah, it’s not going to be an easy road to get back here.”

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