Much has been made of the financial riches on offer for sides who make it to the promised land of Europe’s elite competition, but much more than that was on the line for Celtic in Kazakhstan.
Over the last three seasons, the club had made themselves a regular in the competition and were an agonising Alphonso Davies goal away from reaching the knockout phase of last season’s competition.
“The Champions League is a wonderful competition,” said a crestfallen Rodgers after his side failed to make it for a fourth consecutive season.
“But as we always do we will have to stick together as a squad. It’s a tough one to take, but we didn’t do enough over the two legs.
“From the first day back they’ve been brilliant, domestically we’ve started well, but at this level, even with teams that don’t quite have the quality, you still need that little bit of extra finesse and precision.”
Qualification for the top-level competition brings around 18m euros (£15.5m) for each club. On top of that, you can add ticket sales, merchandise, additional sponsorship and a whack of corporate cash.
In comparison, dropping into the Europa League takes that 18m euros (£15.5m) to just above 4m euros (£3.46m). A win is worth 450,000 euros (£388,000) instead of 2m euros (£1.73m).
Neither side looked like scoring the vital goal as the tie headed for the shootout, and Celtic captain Callum McGregor made the stark admission that the side didn’t deserve to progress.
“We didn’t deserve to qualify,” he said in the aftermath of the defeat, settled on penalties after a goalless draw in both legs of the tie.
“We have to regroup, we know we have a big game on Sunday [against Rangers] as well.
“It’s a real sore one for the club in general in terms of the finances and everything else.
“We still need help, we still need bodies in the door and hopefully the club can do that.”
