Ahead against Sturm Graz, Celtics manager Brendan Rodgers silences a reporter’s question about Hearts.

Brendan Rodgers has little interest in talking about Sunday’s crucial Scottish Premiership matchup against Hearts.

Following a well-earned 2-0 loss to Dundee on Sunday, Celtic now sits five points behind the Jambos in the standings.

A thrilling battle for the top spot this weekend is set up by Hearts’ comfortable 3-0 victory against Kilmarnock on Saturday.

But first up is Sturm Graz in the Europa League, which is a crucial game in and of itself because Celtic hasn’t yet won in the league stage.

In response to a reporter’s inquiry regarding the Hearts test, Rodgers stated that he wants to concentrate entirely on defeating the Austrians.

Rodgers, the Celtic manager, dismisses the Hearts poser.
“I haven’t touched on that purely because it’s always about the next game,” Rodgers said in response to an initial question regarding the significance of the upcoming games against Hearts, Falkirk, Rangers, and FC Midtjylland over the next two weeks.

“I believe that you look at the fixtures and you tend to look at how it might appear, which goes beyond coaching and managing.

But in the current game, a manager or coach can only look ahead to the next game, and that’s what we’ve been concentrating on.

“We need to improve our performance level; hopefully, that will put us in a better position.”

“No, I think tomorrow night is the next game, and it’s a game where we had two home games on the spin in this competition and we wanted to take the points in those,” Rodgers said when pressed on the crucial Hearts match in particular. That is not what we have done.

“Tomorrow night, we will face a very strong team. We will be prepared for yet another significant task.

Celtic isn’t ready to consider Hearts.
Sturm Graz and winning that match, which is possibly the easiest of Celtic’s Europa League league phase matches, should be the main priorities.

It won’t be simple, though, as Sturm Graz is dominating the Austrian Bundesliga and leads by three points with one game remaining.

They have a lot of confidence, probably more than Celtic does right now, which is problematic for the Hoops.

But as demonstrated by their 4-3 victory over FC Blau-Weiß Linz on Sunday, Sturm Graz is a little leaky at the back.

Celtic must attempt to reveal those defensive weaknesses and record their first victory.