Celtic comeback leaves Lennon beaming
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
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Neil Lennon was "probably the proudest man in Europe" after Celtic FC came from behind to defeat FC Spartak Moskva and register the club's first away win in the competition.
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Unai Emery, Spartak coach
We'll look at what is going on with our back line. It's not only the defenders who experience problems, the team as a whole switch off while defending. We don't capitalise on the chances we create and lose the ball a lot. It all leads to attacks on our goal.
Red cards always force changes. [Sergei] Bryzgalov went on to cover for [Juan] Insaurralde at centre-back. [Artem] Dzyuba brought fresh legs to the attack, while [Aleksandr] Kozlov was sent on to add pace. It's hard to analyse the game. We didn't expect to lose this fixture. The players need to lift their heads and fight for victory in our next matches.
It's hard to compare such different games as this and the one against Barcelona. It's not about motivation or some individual mistakes.
The problem is that we fail to maintain the rhythm that allows us to dominate.
Neil Lennon, Celtic manager
I'm probably the proudest man in Europe tonight. I cannot speak highly enough of the players. They were magnificent and played magnificent football at a very tough venue against an excellent side. They showed great character and fortitude to come back after being a goal down just after half-time, and we thoroughly deserved the win.
I thought [Gary] Hooper was world class. He was just magnificent and the catalyst for a lot of good things we did – he showed how good he is, but there were so many good performances. [Now] we just have to play Barcelona home and away!
This is a huge step for the club. It 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 in the group. 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 a few more performances like that wouldn't do us any harm at all. Every one of the players was a credit to the club.