Celtic's Brendan Rodgers voices fears over safety after Leigh Griffiths incident

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Celtic striker Leigh Griffiths and midfielder Scott Brown at Glasgow AirportImage source, SNS Group Craig Williamson
Image caption,

Leigh Griffiths and captain Scott Brown mixed with fans at Glasgow Airport

Manager Brendan Rodgers wants Celtic to revise travel arrangements, with striker Leigh Griffiths having been heckled at Glasgow Airport.

Griffiths was confronted - and responded verbally - as the team flew out for Wednesday's Champions League qualifier against Rosenborg.

Rodgers said he had not heard of the incident with the Scotland forward.

"Incident or no incident, it's something we can look at that allows us to travel safely," he said.

"The club knows my feeling on our travel and the organisation with that.

"That's something that's internal for us and, with the help of Glasgow Airport, we can maybe get something more suitable.

"Any team in any airport in the world, if you're going from the first entrance of the airport right the way through to the room where you have to pass every element in the airport, every restaurant, every bar in a busy period, of course there's always a risk.

"If there was an incident, it's certainly not something that we would want and not something that a team or anybody else should have to go through."

Griffiths missed the 0-0 first leg of the third qualifying tie through suspension and was an injury doubt for the return in Trondheim.

However, the Scotland international is expected to play some part in Norway and Rodgers remains confident his side can reach the play-off stage.

Image source, SNS
Image caption,

Leigh Griffiths and Olivier Ntcham modelled Celtic's new third kit before leaving for Norway

"The players who played last week were fantastic," he said. "The way in which we played, we lacked that wee bit of cutting edge at the top end of the field, but the mentality okay.

"If you can't score, you don't concede, knowing that we can come here and score goals.

"We kept a clean sheet and that going into the second leg is very important.

"I said before the game to the players, it won't be won last week. There's still another half to play in Rosenborg."

Rodgers played without a recognised striker at Celtic Park in the absence of Griffiths and the injured Moussa Dembele, but a 5-0 thumping of Sunderland in Saturday's friendly at the Stadium of Light showed they can find the net without them.

"We anticipated that the two games would be tough in their own right," he said. "We know, when we play our game, we can score the goals that we need to qualify, but we respect Rosenborg.

"They have good quality, they play with a good idea of football and they'll present a real tough opponent for us.

"The confidence my players would have gained from the group stage last season has really developed them as a team.

"Okay, physically we're a little bit behind maybe some of the opponents you play in qualification, but it's what you have to deal with and we have to find a way through."

Rosenborg coach Kare Ingebrigtsen thinks being midway through their domestic season gives his side an advantage and expects Celtic to tire on what could be a "long night".

He also believes that the expectation of repeating last season's progress to the group stage will put "big pressure" on the visitors.

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