Former Celtic defender Johan Mjallby has backed Brendan Rodgers’ side to emulate the Parkhead class of 2003 and make it to a European final.

The 47-year-old was back at the club yesterday for a 3-3 draw as 20,000 supporters turned up to oversee a Who's Who of former players and celebrities at Celtic Park for a charity game. All proceeds of the match will be shared between the Celtic FC Foundation, the Stiliyan Petrov Foundation and the James Milner Foundation.

Mjallby was part of Martin O’Neill’s team who made it to Seville in 2003, an appearance which came on the back of a failed Champions League campaign. And the Swede believes it is not implausible to expect Rodgers’ side to achieve the same feat.

“Why not? Definitely,” he said. “This team has been absolutely fantastic for two years, winning two Trebles They have a lot of talent in the squad, good, good players.

“We’ll have to wait and see how they do obviously in the group stage first – and it’s quite a tough group. But I think they’ve got every chance because they will improve in every game, I think.

“They will get stronger and stronger. The cobwebs are off. I thought the team looked very strong against Rangers.

“A good run in the league and obviously a good, confident group stage will help them going forward.”

Celtic icon Henrik Larsson did not manage to make a dent on the scoreline yesterday – the Swede had an effort hooked off the line after nutmegging Joe Hart – but he was assured of a typical welcome nonetheless. The goals were shared by freestyle footballer Jeremey Lynch, Robbie Keane, a double from Spanish World Cup winner Juan Capdevilla, Manchester United’s Ashley Young and Gabby Agbonlahor.

In the visiting dug-out Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp appeared to enjoy his inaugural visit to Celtic Park after taking a private jet to make the kick-off. And the Anfield manager was delighted to sing the praises of his current left-back who has just assumed the Scotland captaincy.

Andy Robertson was formally announced as the new skipper of Alex McLeish’s side this week with his day boss keen to applaud the accolade.

“Unfortunately it was not the perfect opponent I would say to celebrate it in Belgium,” smiled Klopp.

“A lot of teams would have struggled against them but that’s how it is. But Andy, you know it probably better than I do, he is a smart fella. And very nice person.

“Andy is a fantastic fella, he’s very smart and can definitely be a leader for the future.

“He has made big steps in the last two years since we’ve worked together and really big steps in the last four or five years, since he started his career properly.

“It’s a really nice story and he’s now the Braveheart for Scotland.

“He can handle the responsibility of being captain.

“He’s still young but he’s already a leader and he’ll be even better in the future.”

And the Anfield boss has also been interested to see just how Rangers manager Steven Gerrard has settled into management at Ibrox.

The new Rangers manager lost his first game against Celtic last Sunday but has been successful in taking the Ibrox side into the Europa League, a feat that few would have anticipated.

In any case, Klopp believes that there was no real surprise in losing to Celtic last weekend and believes that there was sufficient evidence to argue that the gap between the teams is not as substantial as it was.

“The start was brilliant and then he lost against Celtic,” said Klopp. “Wow, what a surprise! They’re the top team in the league and it’s not like they were 50 or 60% better — like they have been in the last few years.

“They’re getting closer and that’s the only way to get them one day.

“That’s his job, but so far more than good. It was brilliant in Europe, he’s putting a good team together and they have to improve.”

And Petrov revealed after the game that Larsson had apologised to him for not marking the occasion with a goal.

“Henrik was furious at not scoring and told me he was sorry because he hadn’t got one for me - but I let him off because of all the other goals he’s scored!,” said Petrov. “It was also great that Jose Mourinho allowed Ashley Young to come up and told us we could use him for as long as we want.

“Brendan Rodgers was a good manager for us. He said: ‘This is a great cause but I’m here to win because I was at Liverpool and they kicked me out of there!”