“I look at his teams at Raith and what he’s doing now at Falkirk in bringing them up, and you see how they play, and you see the attitude and energy they have in the game, the technical qualities they have.

“He and Paul Smith, his assistant, have done a brilliant job, and I’m just so pleased for him because there was a wee bit of nervousness at the end of last year but they got the job done.

“He deserves all the accolades he gets, he’s been absolutely fantastic and, like I’ve said, they’ve demonstrated their game idea and how they want to play, and they’ve demonstrated a belief in that, and that football philosophy has allowed Falkirk to get promoted for the first time in years.

“So well done to him, his staff and his players and, for us, we don’t underestimate them tomorrow night. We’ll be ready from the first whistle to be really aggressive in the game.”

The manager also spoke about his delight at having Kieran Tierney back at Celtic, and the fact that they are carefully managing his game-time in these early weeks of the new season.

“That will just be time and I just want to take it steady with Kieran because he’s full on in training, his mentality is unbelievable,” Brendan Rodgers said.

“It’s also considering that he hasn’t played a lot over the last couple of years, so then just throwing him into every game for 90 minutes, that’s not really going to work for us.

“But I’ve been so pleased with how he has come in and how he’s settled, and he’s getting between 60 and 70 minutes and just working his fitness level.

“He understands it now and he’s obviously got a great maturity to him now, and he’s probably sensed that maybe he’s been his own worst enemy, because he is so committed and he is so full-on.

“But you can see his maturity as an experienced player now, in those moments where, if you’re doing six exercises and you take him out of the last one, he understands it better now, even though he’s inherently a guy who gives everything.

“It’s never 70 or 80 per cent. It’s always 100 per cent but I’ve been so pleased to have him back and he’s showed up really well.”

Watch the manager’s full press conference

Reaction to UCL play-off draw
Falkirk cup-tie
Praise for John McGynn
Kieran Tierney
Squad update

Brendan Rodgers: We're looking forward to kicking off defence of our trophy