Brendan Rodgers refused to get carried away by Celtic’s spirited 1-1 draw away to Astana in the Champions League third qualifying round.
A 77th minute goal from Leigh Griffiths puts Celtic into the driving seat with the home leg in seven days at Celtic Park.
Celtic went into the match with horrendous injury problems in defence but emerged with a trio of youngsters taking the credit.
“Two 19-year-olds in (Patrick) Roberts and (Kieran) Tierney, they kept fighting,” the Celtic boss said. “Eoghan’s (O’Connell) 20, others are young, and showing the ability to fight.”
“I thought Eoghan was outstanding as a young player coming into that environment. I’m proud of him and the young players involved.”
Looking at how the tie is placed Rodgers added: “Huge amount of credit is due to the players. Opinion was we’d do well to come back with anything other than a loss. It’s only half-time but very big result for us.
“We were disappointed with the goal but showed a wonderful mentality to keep fighting, the resilience and strength of mentally we’ve built up came into effect.”
Celtic started confidently but fell behind to a to a 19th minute header from Yuri Logvinenko inside the six yard box from a corner.
Astana’s strength at set pieces had been highlighted before the match but despite the warnings Logvinenko found himself unmarked in the six yard box as Craig Gordon attempted a despairing punch at the ball.
Celtic could have had a penalty almost instantly when Moussa Dembele was sent tumbling 15 yards from goal but the Italian referee decided that no foul had been committed.
With 13 minutes left to play Patrick Roberts wrestled the ball from a defender on the by-line, squared the ball back to Griffiths who took one touch before sending a priceless shot into the Astana net from 16 yards out.