Neil Lennon

NEIL LENNON has told his Celtic stars to chase the dream of a place in the Europa League Final.

Hoops gaffer Lenny played in the club’s last Euro final — the 2003 Uefa Cup defeat to Jose Mourinho’s Porto in Seville.

He also watched Rangers lose to * Advocaat’s Zenit St Petersburg in Manchester five years later.

But Lennon has challenged his Group E winners to reach the quarter-finals at least — and won’t rule out a dramatic return to a final.


Lennon, whose side ended their group campaign with a 2-0 away loss to Cluj, said: “Two teams in the last 20 years have made the final, so there’s an incentive there. If that’s the glass ceiling I’ll take that and maybe try to win it this time. But it’s a long way off.

“You start to get really excited about it if you make it to the quarter-finals.

“I think that should be our first aim — to try and get to the quarters and take it from there if we can.”

Celts will be seeded in Monday’s draw for the last-32 knockout stages and will miss big guns like Ajax, Inter, Sevilla, Arsenal and Manchester United.


They could still land an awkward tie against the likes of Roma, Shakhtar Donetsk, Bayer Leverkusen or Wolves.

But the historic group win and points haul — highlighted by back-to-back victories over Lazio — has filled Lennon with confidence.

He added: “We can handle anyone, but we don’t want to rest on the Lazio wins and for that to be the big feather in the cap this season.

“We want more big scalps and we want to forge ahead.


We will see what Monday brings and then we will look forward to that when the time comes around.

“I hope our seeding can help. I hope it’s a favourable one.


We want to make inroads into it if we can.

“We’ve had a brilliant campaign so far and we don’t want it to end. We’re excited about it so we’ll see what Monday brings.

“There are many incentives for us. When the draw comes on Monday I am sure we’ll all be looking forward to it and it’s brilliant to be in a great position after Christmas.

“It’s a real motivation for the players and obviously the fans crave it as well.”

Cluj manager Dan Petrescu, whose side joined Celts in the last 32 after their win on Thursday night, has tipped the Hoops as potential Europa League winners.

Lennon, who next faces former club Hibs on Sunday, said: “I think he was genuine.

“He even said to me afterwards that we have got a fantastic squad here and he was very complimentary.

“Sometimes we get credit from other areas rather than back home.


We had a 100 per cent home record.

“But it is done for now. It’s moving into the knockout rounds now and that makes a big difference.”

 

Said it in the match thread but the way he set up today was vert smart imo, hibs were not coming here to park the bus, and pretty much nullified their attack. They still had a few chances but it worked perfectly, i wonder if he might try this set-up to stop the huns high press later in the month?

 

NL: I was so pleased with the quality of chances we created. We didn’t always take them, but from 15-20 minutes in, we were dominant. We could have racked up a bit more, but in terms of quality of overall performance, I thought we were outstanding

NL : “I thought the midfield three were outstanding, and Frimpong is one of the best kids I’ve seen at that age. Odsonne getting his goal will do him the world of good as well.

NL: “I’m delighted with what Frimpong brings to the team – offensively and defensively. He thoroughly deserved his goal, he’s an outstanding talent and just watching him makes me tired, the way he runs up and down that line.

 

He looks happier and much more relaxed this time round. You love to see it.

 

We have a fantastic squad now but my fear is keeping everyone happy. Everyone wants to play regularly but obviously can’t. But why would anyone want to leave, we’re performing on every front?
A bit of a rhetorical question really.

 

I think the size of the squad is close to being bang on. Maybe we could do with a young player to cover and grow at centre back, either Robertson or an other to provide cover at defensive mid and I think we need a striker with a view to edoaurd potentially leaving in the medium term. Then we have a few like rogic, shved, eboue and Sinclair that I assume would like more minutes and probably arent happy with what they are currently getting. What seems clear with Lennon is that you need to earn your minutes. I remember him saying first time frimpong featured that his performances in training were impossible to ignore .

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Think he has a stronger coaching staff this time around which will help him a lot.

 

Feel his interviews have become much more confident, clear and definite, looks like he is in a happy place ,knows his efforts have won over most of the doubters, you cant beat luck and lenny Carrie's good luck , couple that with confidence and we have a hard to beat team .

 

See this earlier..

I couldn't stand listening to the snake for ages. Can listen to Lenny easily. Talks well and seems much happier and relaxed these day's..

 

Couldn't stand Lennon's press conferences for a while, especially during the transfer window, but I think a part of that was listening to Rodgers for years and knowing he was talking * and becoming more and more cynical. Between him, Congerton and Lawell you knew we were getting the square root of * all sorted.

In the end, we did actually have a decent transfer window in August there and we've been heading in the right direction ever since. I think January will be huge though in terms of whether Lennon, the scouting department and the club have turned a corner. If Lennon says he wants at least one quality striker in, plus Forster on a permanent and a right winger (just examples) and we hear we are close to a few big deals and end up with a Commper 2.0 it will mirror Rodgers first window and subsequent ones and I'll return to being cynical as * and not wanting to listen to him on transfers.

I'm still not 100% convinced with Lennon all of the time, playing Morgan up top in a League Cup final being a recent example, but he's proved me very wrong in the most part to this point. He also now has a very good opportunity to go in to the winter break at least 8 points clear, having won the League Cup (somehow ) and then take us to the last 16 of the Europa League which would be an incredible achievement given the sides in our Europa group and how well Rangers have done in the league.

 

Asked if we would see another Scottish team make final and his answer was yes have to agree little bit of good preparation and luck of the draw it can happen.... Now if brendan Rodgers was asked that question he would say no we don't even have the budget of a team in championship...

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NL: I’m delighted, I can’t ask for any more, apart from maybe putting a more emphatic scoreline."

NL: "We created some great chances in the second half, and we had two great chances before half-time to go three or four up."

NL: "We looked good, we got another clean sheet against a team who were very much up for the game and playing with a lot of pride. We’re in a good place at the minute."

NL: "They were all brilliant. I thought Callum was brilliant. I thought
@ScottBrown8
was really disciplined after the yellow card. The midfield is functioning really well, and the front three are playing brilliantly."


NL: "Now, I want us to keep getting better as we go along, and they’re not letting up at the moment

 

A like the cut of this Lennon guys gyp @\o/ something * about him I like!

 

Thats cos Lennie is the real deal and has no need to trot out the auld wifie / Danny Mcgrain lies to ingratiate himself with the support