LENNON: DELIGHTED WITH VICTORY AT ABERDEEN
FROM NEIL DOHERTY: CELTIC avoided another potential banana skin in their bid to stay in control of the SPL by beating Aberdeen 2-0 at Pittodrie.
Yet another young player from the increasingly extensive Celtic scouting system – Tunisian Lassad Nouioui – opened the scoring when he stroked into an empty net in the 73rd minute, having only come on for Kris Commons four minutes earlier.
Charlie Mulgrew added a second against his former club three minutes later.
It was a good day for a Rangers-less SPL as almost 19,000 fans turned up for the early kick-off.
But a cracker on the field it wasn’t as the home side tried to contain Celtic.
With Hibs losing the Hoops are back on top of the SPL as manager Neil Lennon hopes his Bhoys can be Lisbon Lions again with the Champions League trip to Benfica midweek.
Celtic manager Neil Lennon has described his side’s upcoming Champions League trip to Benfica as the hardest match of the group.
“This game will be the toughest of our group, they will be very motivated to beat us,” said Lennon, who rates next week’s game as tougher than the match against Barcelona.
“We’re going to come up against a very motivated team at home, who are very impressive at home and who are going very well domestically.
“If we can get through midweek with a draw or a win that would be marvellous.”
Celtic are second behind Barcelona in Group G on seven points but are three points ahead of the Portugese side who took a point in their first encounter at Parkhead.
“No-one would have expected us to beat Barcelona, it was a fantastic night, but it’s gone, it’s history,” said Neil.
“I said to the guys, I’ll take you out in 20 years for a pint and we’ll talk about it, but it’s gone now and we want to qualify and that’s our whole focus.
“I want to qualify now, it would mean so much to the club.
“In the last 16 you just never know where it will take you.”
Lennon was happy with the result today – following lost points in that last three domestic matches.
“I put a powerful team out today because I felt we had to be physical,” he said.
“I thought we had control of the game today for long periods, without quality at the end of it, but we got there.
“It’s a huge three points for us. We looked a good team and it sets us up nicely for Tuesday.”
And he was delighted with Tunisian Lassad Nouioui who has been riddled with injuries since joining the Hoops in the summer.
“We really like the look of him,” said Neil.
“He’s been unfortunate that he missed the pre-season and he’s just been picking up wee niggly injuries.
“We’re trying to drip-feed him into the squad and that will have done his confidence the world of good.”
Tags: