Rafa Nadal finally ended two decades at the top of professional tennis last week.
Amid the tears and tributes, it was easy to overlook the fact that the 14-time French Open champion spent much of his career in agony. He battled a chronic foot condition called Mueller-Weiss syndrome for years and spent most of 2023 nursing a hip injury.
Pain and torment were the price to pay for winning 22 Grand Slam titles. A masochistic streak ran through him when he admitted: “I learned throughout my career to enjoy suffering.”
Celtic have suffered their share in the Champions League. And enjoy is not the first word that comes to mind.
When the Scottish champions were thrashed 7-1 in Dortmund, they were savagely attacked. Winning four points out of six in the two games since, Rodgers can now afford to be philosophical about the experience, likening it to a rebound on a trampoline.
A big win over RB Leipzig helped Celtic make Dortmund history
All a far cry from the night they were beaten 7-1 by Dortmund in Germany.
Rodgers shares a joke with goalscorer Reo Hatate after Leipzig’s victory
“Failure is part of the journey,” says the Northern Irishman
‘And I said it at the time, and they probably looked at me a little funny, but it can be that springboard effect and it can set you back even higher. But the important thing is how you face it.
“So dealing with the setback we had that night, you can see where it caught the players and bounced them forward. It’s all in how you react to difficult moments. “This team has shown it and shown it, and I think there’s still a lot more to come.”
In the euphoria that followed the 3-1 win over RB Leipzig earlier this month – Celtic’s biggest European win in years – it was easy to forget how tense everything had become when the Bundesliga side took the lead with a cheap initial goal.
They should have scored with another effort moments later. Antonio Nusa then converted a glorious chance high and wide as Celtic took advantage of their luck. When Nicolas Kuhn equalized with his first shot on goal, the hosts did not look back.
After a decade without a win against Europe’s elite at Parkhead, the team has made it three in a row. For the first time in years, Celtic are expected to win a home game in Europe.
Expectations ignore the fact that Brugge beat Sturm Graz away from home, Aston Villa at home and were unlucky to lose 3-1 to AC Milan at the San Siro. Like the Leipzig game, Celtic will not have this game tonight their own way. Sometimes they will have to suffer, there is no doubt.
“As much as you want to dominate, you’re just not going to do it,” Rodgers said. ‘You can’t do it at this level.
“You are going to go through moments in which the rival, who has a lot of quality in his team and is very well trained, will make you suffer.” And it is having that capacity to suffer.
Kuhn was a hero against Leipzig and hopes to score again in the clash against Club Brugge.
Cameron Carter Vickers gets up to speed for the visit of the Belgian champions
Rodgers feels cautiously confident ahead of game against Club Brugge
“I think that was the best thing about the game against Leipzig. We suffered, we fell behind after making a very good start. So we had to weather a little storm for about 10 minutes, but then we got back into the game and stayed with very, very convincing winners. But you have to be prepared for it and that is something we are developing all the time.
If any club has achieved this Champions League feat, it is Real Madrid. However, in the biggest overhaul of the competition format in 32 years, even 15-time winners are being asked to suffer like Rafa.
Like Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain, the club financed by the State of Qatar, Carlo Ancelotti’s team finds the new single league disturbing. There is an expectation that they will come out ahead in the end, because these teams usually do. That’s one reason Rodgers is reluctant to take anything for granted just yet.
With seven points from four games and four more games left (against Brugge, Dinamo Zagreb, Young Boys and Aston Villa), a draw offers a real chance of reaching at least the round of 16.
Just over a month after his Champions League managerial record was beaten from pillar to post, Rodgers will not make the mistake of thinking he has already surpassed it.
“You always have to be active, you’re always learning,” he said. ‘Things can be complicated. Never think you’ve ever figured it out.
Rodgers has one last training session before the Club Brugge clash
Kasper Schmeichel is put to the test as Celtic prepare for final Euro match
Kyogo Furuhashi will be one of the leading men of another great night at Parkhead
‘Above all, with the greatest respect, clubs like ours.
“It’s always the case that we have to bring our skill to the highest level in every game if we want to have a chance to progress.” It is a brutal competition in terms of level and the slightest errors are punished.
“In the game against Leipzig we started the game very well and then we gave the ball away, once. It leads to a corner, you concede and suddenly you are on the defensive for 10 minutes.
‘But we all know it, I think we’ve seen it enough. You have to be focused on your concentration, you are improving your level of performance and then, as I said, you have to make it really difficult for the opponent.
“We are playing against a very, very good opponent and we will be prepared to try to control them as much as we can.”
‘Our goal is, first and foremost, to get to the play-off stage and then we just have to see what total points (we can get). But. For us, it’s really about focusing on this game and achieving the level of performance.”
When things get tough (and they usually do at some point), Rodgers preaches the need for calm.
That’s an easy thing to ask for and much harder to deliver when 60,000 fans are working at the limit of their capabilities.
Atalanta away and Leipzig at home showed promising signs that a team is learning to keep its head when everyone around them is losing theirs.
“When you can go to Atalanta and keep a clean sheet, that gave us great confidence that, at the highest level, we can be strong defensively. Then we carried that into the game against RB Leipzig,” said Rodgers.
“The same idea, but we also have the support of the local public. Then the level of our football increases and in general we achieve a very consistent performance. ‘Together with some of the other performances we have had along the journey over the last 14 months, that has given us great hope that we can continue to progress and develop in this competition.
“We want to make it really difficult for teams to play against us, and we know we’re going to have to struggle at times.” But that is the level.”