Brendan Rodgers has admitted he's disappointed by Celtic's Champions League exit to Bayern Munich last night - but believes his side have regained 'credibility' in Europe despite the result.
The Hoops had gone into Tuesday night's clash hoping to go through, having trailed 2-1 from the first leg.
It looked as though Celtic had done enough to force extra-time when Nicolas-Gerrit Kuhn netted in the 63rd minute of the match at the Allianz Arena.
However, a late goal from Alphonso Davies broke their hearts with Bayern scraping through to the next round of the competition as a result.
Brendan Rodgers has admitted he's disappointed by Celtic's Champions League exit to Bayern Munich last night - but believes his side have regained 'credibility' in Europe despite the result
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Celtic, in recent years, have struggled in Europe.
Yet Rodgers was proud of his side's efforts and believes his side have regained some 'credibility'.
Speaking to Celtic TV, he said: “In terms of the performance I’ve very proud. Naturally we’re hugely disappointed to concede so late, but this is Bayern Munich and we’ve come out here and played without any fear.
“We had opportunities to win the game – good opportunities – we showed our courage with and without the ball, and just pride really, as well as disappointment at this moment because the guys gave so much to the game.
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"The players gave everything to the game and we made it really difficult for Bayern Munich. Some of our football was at a really good level.
"We managed our way through the game how we wanted to. We started well, we created opportunities, we pressed at the right time, we sat in at the right moments and didn’t give away so much.
“Harry Kane hit the crossbar towards the end of the first half but other than that we were in a good place and had really good chances in the first-half – three really, really good chances.
“But I look at the performance and my takeaway from Europe is the credibility that we’ve gained this season.
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Celtic were sent crashing out of the Champions League on Tuesday, with Alphonso Davies scoring late for Bayern Munich
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"We’ve developed from last season and improved yet again this season and I’m really excited going forward what this team can do.”
Celtic won't have too long to dwell on the defeat, however.
They're next in action against Hibernian on Saturday as they continue their bid for Scottish Premiership glory.
And Rodgers insists Celtic must regain their focus, with the former Liverpool, Leicester and Swansea boss adding: “Now we can get back, we can recover, we’ve got two trophies now to aim for in this latter part of the season so we want to make sure we’re in this competition again next season."
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Bayern boss Vincent Kompany, meanwhile, was pleased to see his side go through.
The Bundesliga titans have reached the round of 16 just days after battling to a goalless draw against Bayer Leverkusen.
Kompany, reacting to the result, stated: “It was a hard-fought draw, I thought we had many chances in the second half to score two-to-three goals.
"The context is important, we spent a lot of energy in the past six days.
Brendan Rodgers was proud of his players despite Bayern Munich sending his Celtic side crashing out of the Champions League
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"In the end, we’re 8 points ahead in the league and we’ve advanced to the next round in the Champions League. We now have some time to recover.
"Of course we always want to dominate and be much better than the opponent, especially here at Allianz Arena. But the result is always the most important thing. We’ll learn from this game.
"As I said, we have to look at the context, we played too many games.
"We fought hard three days ago in Leverkusen, and six days ago at Celtic Park to get the result that helped us today."
