Celtic manager Neil Lennon praised defender Kelvin Wilson, who seems set to rejoin former club Nottingham Forest, after his side secured a goalless draw against Elfsborg to progress to the play-off round of the Champions League.
The Hoops survived a nervous 90 minutes in the Boras Arena as their slender 1-0 advantage from the first leg in Glasgow was enough to see them through their third qualifying round tie.
Elfsborg, unbeaten at home since September 2011, made life difficult for the Scottish champions, who struggled at times on the artificial surface.
Lennon was delighted with the way his players stood up to the challenge and singled out Wilson for the plaudits.
“I’ve got to pay credit to Elfsborg. This was their cup final and they were strong and very physical but my back four tonight were magnificent, especially my two centre-halves,” the Celtic manager said.
“That’s probably Kelvin Wilson’s last game for us but I said to him he can go with his head held high as he was unbelievable tonight.
“I’m not sure if a deal has been agreed yet but I don’t think it’s far away. We asked him to play tonight and he didn’t want to let the team down and he certainly didn’t.
“These games are really hard. It’s a tough time to be a manager in these situations so I’m glad we have come through it ok. It’s a brilliant result for us and it gives us a wee bit of time to prepare for the next round now as well.”
Lennon admitted it hadn’t been his side’s best performance but was critical of Elfsborg’s artificial pitch.
“We had to scrap a bit tonight. We weren’t at our best and we know that,” the Celtic boss acknowledged.
“These are tough games at this stage of the season against the Swedish champions who you have to respect.
“We could have passed it a bit better but this is the worst artificial pitch I have ever seen.
“I’m getting in my excuses now as we’ve gone through but it was very difficult for players to keep their balance out there at times. We were a little bit disjointed and we picked up a couple of injuries as the game went on as well.
“But hopefully we will have Virgil van Dijk and Steven Mouyokolo back for the next tie and they will make us better and obviously we just need to get up to match speed a little bit as well.”
Celtic, who are seeded for Friday’s draw, could meet Austria Vienna (Austria), Maribor (Slovenia), Shakther Karagandy (Kazakhstan), Ludogorets Razgrad (Bulgaria) or Legia Warsaw (Poland) in the play-off round.
The Hoops manager said he didn’t have a preference about who they would face for a place in the lucrative group stages of the Champions League.
“I haven’t really paid much attention to the teams. I’ll wait for the draw on Friday and we’ll take it from there but that was a real tough one for us tonight,” Lennon added.
Lennon hails departing Wilson for Euro role
