Brendan Rodgers insists his Celtic players are starting to meet his demands after a thumping win over Hearts as he set his sights on stunning one of the world's best in Atletico Madrid.

The Hoops cruised to a 4-1 win at Tynecastle where they could also afford to miss a penalty with Reo Hatate hitting the post from 12 yards after Kyogo won a controversial spot kick award. But it didn't matter despite Lawrence Shankland giving the Jambos a glimmer of hope as Matt O'Riley and Daizen Maeda had the champions on easy street by then. And Tomoki Iwata rattled in a fourth after Kyogo had made it 3-0 to restore Celtic's seven point lead at the summit.

Now attention turns to Spanish giants Atletico Madrid in the Champions League at Parkhead. Rodgers was delighted with his side's display and said: "It's a fantastic win for us. Of course, this is a very difficult place to come. A lot of the game was excellent, scored some outstanding goals. I'm disappointed that, one, we didn't score more and, two, the goal we gave away was a shame.

"The players are finding a level of understanding more of what we want. The tempo of the game was good from us, some of the quality was really good, and the only disappointment was that spell when it went 3-1 - we obviously missed the penalty - and we have to keep the ball better. I know we tired and there was a bit of fatigue set in but you can rest with the ball better than we did in that period of the game. But it was great, the substitutions came in and made a really good contribution - James Forrest was absolutely brilliant when he came into the game.

"Matt's a wonderful football player but it's knowing when you're a No. 8, attacking midfield player, you want to hit numbers and it was a great ball by Luis Palma, he's shown that a number of times since he has come in, but Matty's finish was absolutely brilliant. First he makes the run, we always talk about the penetration to get behind the back line, but then to finish with that quality was very good. Kyogo's contribution is very good. Celtic, over the years have always had a talisman, but it's about the team. He's a wonderful little striker, he gets goals and makes runs - he can make more runs - but overall he's a fantastic focal point for us."

Asked if it's too early to compare to his Invincibles side, Rodgers said: "Yeah, I get asked that question a lot. The levels are different and everything else. People say it's stronger (in his first spell) than it was now. I don't see that. Aberdeen were a good team when I was here first, so were Hearts and Steve Clarke at Kilmarnock.

Tomoki Iwata celebrates "Places like here are where you find out if you are a good team or not. You are going to have difficult moments but the players dealt with it really, really well. It's probably as quiet as the (home) fans have been in my time of being here."

And as he looked ahead to the challenge of Diego Simeone's Atletico, Rodgers said: "It's all about levels, and that is the highest level of European football. I've been pleased with the players but it's a big challenge on Wednesday night. We want to take on the best teams in the world and we don't have to be the best team in the world, but we want to be able to take them. We need to recover. We put a lot of effort into the game and then we will go away and study and finalise our plan for Wednesday."