Brendan Rodgers relishes Celtic trip to Japan after 'fantastic week' in Portugal

Brendan Rodgers is 'really looking forward' to stepping up Celtic's pre-season preparations in Japan after ending 'a fantastic week' in Portugal with a 4-1 friendly win over Portimonense on Saturday.

The recently appointed Hoops boss had fun leading his side during their hot weather training camp in the Algarve over the past week.

And Rodgers, whose side kicked off their Premiership title defense at home to Ross County on August 5, is delighted to see Celtic continue their preparations for the new campaign when his Japanese tour, with matches against teams from the J-League. Yokohama F.Marinos on Wednesday and Gamba Osaka next Saturday.

"It's a tough schedule over the two weeks here in the heat (in Portugal) and it will be similar heat in Japan, with the humidity," Rodgers told Celtic's website on Saturday.

"Obviously the teams we face there are already halfway through their season, so it will be a challenge for us again, but that's what we want.

"We need this challenge at this time of the season to improve our physical condition. We will be back today (Saturday), we will recover tonight and we will leave tomorrow, and I am really looking forward to Japan."

Rodgers was pleased with Celtic's performance as Reo Hatate, Liel Abada, Ben Summers and Oh Hyeon-gyu scored in a behind-closed-doors win over Portuguese top-flight side Portimonense.

"We had a fantastic week so to finish with a decent performance and a good result for the guys, although that's not the most important thing at this stage, I was really happy,"< /p >

"Obviously the heat is sweltering here, but in terms of intensity and some of the football was very good. There is still a long way to go, but I'm really happy.

"You can see it with some of the goals we scored, our high pressing on the pitch and our will to win, and then we took a chance. It was a really good run-out.

"For some of the guys, the international guys, it was their first game of playing time, but overall it's been a really good week.

"It's been a difficult week for the players and the staff, because there hasn't been a lot of real time in the schedule, but they have worked very well in this first part of the tour, which was really nice."

Left-back Greg Taylor, who played 45 minutes against Portimonense, knows the value of an intensive pre-season for a Celtic side who will contest the Champions League while trying to defend the three domestic trophies in the upcoming campaign. .

"We're a team that wants to score goals, that hasn't changed, and we're also a team that wants to try to keep clean sheets, so we'll build that in pre-season, but right now , it's about doing work more than results,” he said.

"Having a full pre-season under his belt, there is nothing more important for a footballer.

"We will have a long and difficult season with a lot of games, and games - you saw it last season - until the last minute and important goals.

"All of this work is done in pre-season because you are developing your physical condition for the long, hard work ahead.

"Every player tried to impress and gave it their all, and I hope we continue that momentum in Japan as there is still a lot of work to do there."