By The Telegraph (World News) | Created at 2024-10-23 15:25:54 | Updated at 2024-10-23 17:51:00
2 hours ago
Good evening and welcome to live coverage of Celtic’s Champions League trip to Atalanta after two contrasting outings in the new-look league phase so far. Brendan Rodgers’ team won 5-1 at home to Slovan Bratislava in their opening game before a chastening 7-1 thrashing at Borussia Dortmund.
Celtic had a tough league game at the weekend, a 2-2 draw with Aberdeen at Parkhead which left the clubs level on 22 points at the top of the Scottish Premiership. Celtic remain top domestically thanks to their superior goal difference.
Tonight’s game in Bergamo against last season’s Europa League winners also promises to be an exacting test. Gian Piero Gasperini’s team press aggressively with a smothering man-to-man approach that can be difficult for uninitiated opponents to come to terms with.
Atalanta have four points on the board after two Champions League matches; a convincing win over Shakhtar Donetsk and a creditable home draw against Arsenal in which they came closest to taking all three points with a missed penalty.
One of their attacking threats is Ademola Lookman, a player Rodgers said almost joined him at Celtic during his first managerial spell at the club.
The winger agreed personal terms on a move from Charlton but Everton outbid Celtic in a reported £11 million deal in January 2017.
Rodgers was reunited with Lookman in a loan season from RB Leipzig in 2021-22 when he was Leicester manager but again his club could not afford a permanent transfer.
He instead tipped off former Celtic chief scout Lee Congerton, who was then at Atalanta, and the English-born Nigeria international will face Celtic in the Champions League on Wednesday with his profile raised by his hat-trick heroics in last season’s Europa League final.
Rodgers said: “Ademola was one that we tracked back in my first time at Celtic.
“I met him in a hotel in London and we were looking to convince him to come. Sadly, we just couldn’t get to the levels that Charlton wanted for him, but the club had done everything they possibly could at that time.
“He wanted to join a big club and feel those pressures and everything of why a player would want to come to Celtic.
“Charlton clearly were wanting to get as much as they possibly could for him. We spoke to him from the personal perspective. It was a move that suited him and suited his representatives and he was very clear on that.
“But obviously it was the financial sum at the end, he went to Everton and it just drifted away from us.”
Team news on the way.
