NEIL LENNON insisted that Odsonne Edouard will still be at Celtic to lead their Europa League charge after the Frenchman fired his team into the group stages last night.
Edouard’s all-important goal 20 minutes from time was enough to see Celtic through against a stuffy Sarajevo side in Bosnia, and they will now be seeded in pot one for today’s draw after Copenhagen, Basel, Sporting and Wolfsburg all crashed out.
And Lennon remains bullish on the prospect of Edouard still being in the Hoops after the transfer window closes and those group games roll around.
“I’m very confident he’ll still be here after Monday night,” Lennon said.
“In fact, I think I’m very confident they will all still be here.
“We’re very strong on it, we don’t want to sell any of our players — and we don’t need to now.
“Maybe if we hadn’t qualified it would’ve been something the board would’ve had to look at. But, that’s not an issue for us now.”
Lennon was delighted with the predatory nature of Edouard’s goal on the night, and the overall performance of his side.
“It’s bounced up in front of the goalkeeper, he couldn’t hold it and Odsonne’s showed great striker’s instinct to follow it in and score,” he said. “It’s a huge goal from him and for the club.
“As a squad, I couldn’t be happier for them. They’ve been absolutely brilliant.
“Now hopefully we’ll get some big group games to look forward to. It sets the season up nicely for us as well as providing some added financial clout for the club.
“It was a very good professional performance. We were strong and we had to be. The game went how we expected it to be on a horrendous pitch. I thought the longer the game went on we got better and better.
“I’m absolutely thrilled to be in the group stages.”
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