Rodgers hails Celtic's resilience

Brendan Rodgers praised Celtic's mentality to come from a goal down to draw 1-1 against Astana in their Champions League qualifier.

The Hoops fell behind to a Yuri Logvinenko goal in the 19th minute at the Astana Arena but they fought on for the equaliser and were finally rewarded when Leigh Griffiths struck with 12 minutes remaining.

The result means Celtic will take a valuable away goal into next Wednesday's second leg in Glasgow and Rodgers was quick to pay tribute to his players.

"It was an outstanding result," Rodgers said. "We're disappointed with the goal but I think after that we showed wonderful mentality to keep fighting. It's a very important result for us."

Former Cork City centre-back Eoghan O'Connell made his European debut for the Scottish champions and the 20-year-old was signalled out for praise by his manager.

"I thought he was outstanding," Rodgers said. "For a young layer, he has been on the fringes for a few years, coming into that environment, under pressure, he had very few mistakes in the game.

"You would expect him to make some as a young player but he coped in a very difficult situation."

Reflecting on the game, Rodgers added: "We were all written off before the game, everyone was pretty clear in their opinion that we would do well to come back with anything other than a loss.

"But the players deserve an immense amount of credit, to fight and show spirit and passion in the game.

"The resilience and strength that we have built up over the course of pre-season came into effect."

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