Lennon savours the moment his team finally came of age

Wednesday 3 October 2012

HE described himself as "probably the proudest man in Europe" and few could begrudge Neil Lennon such sentiments last night.

Neil Lennon, left, celebrates with his assistant Johan Mjallby, centre, and coach Garry Parker

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His Celtic side had just recorded a remarkable victory in Moscow, the club's first away win in the group stages of European football's elite club competition.

It was a moment he wanted to savour. "I am probably the proudest man in Europe tonight," said Lennon. "I cannot speak highly enough of the players. They played magnificent football at a very tough venue against an excellent side. They showed great character and fortitude to come back. I thought we thoroughly deserved to win."

Amid a welter of fine displays, Lennon was keen to highlight the contribution made by Gary Hooper. The Englishman scored the opening goal, created the opening that led to the second and harassed the Spartak defence all evening. "I thought Gary was world class," said the manager. "I thought he was magnificent and the catalyst for a lot of good things we did tonight. People keep asking me about him playing for England, I think he showed how good he is tonight."There were so many good performances. [Emilio] Izaguirre, [Efe] Ambrose, [Kelvin] Wilson, [Scott] Brown, [Georgios] Samaras came on to a game, [Kris] Commons got stronger as the game went on, [James] Forrest came on and gave us pace and quality. I think people underestimate Celtic. I don't think we get the respect we deserve but maybe tonight's performance might change a few attitudes."And perhaps a few expectations. The result leaves them poised in second place in Group G, with four points from their opening two games, ahead of consecutive fixtures with Barcelona. However, the manager was keen to savour the moment rather than look ahead at the possibility of making the last 16."We have to play Barcelona home and away . . . it is a huge step," he said. "This is our first away win in the Champions League, so we have broken a record. It is fantastic but there is a lot of football to be played. We have two home games and Benfica and Barcelona away so it is still an open group for second place as far as I am concerned. We are still novices in this tournament but more performances like that would not do us any harm. Every player was a credit to the club tonight."Spartak had been unlucky to lose 3-2 to Barcelona in Camp Nou on matchday one but could have few complaints about last night's result. Coach Unai Emery said: "You can't compare the two games, Barcelona and Celtic are two different sides. In Barcelona we seemed to be more disciplined. We should have been more aggressive, that was our main problem. Some players lacked confidence."

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Lennon savours the moment his team finally came of age

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