Neil Lennon was delighted by the power play of Amido Balde in Celtic’s 1-0 win over Liverpool.
The former Vitoria Guimaraes striker has barely featured in any of Celtic’s five competitive matches this season but put in an impressive display as Celtic claimed the Dublin Decider.
Playing as a lone striker Balde had some support coming from Anthony Stokes and Tony Watt but led the line well keeping the Liverpool defence on the back foot.
Balde turned Andre Wisdom brilliantly to score the only goal of the match early in the second half with Lennon thrilled by the striker’s contribution.
“Balde was immense,” the Celtic boss stated. “I thought he gave (Kolo) Toure and (Andre) Wisdom all sorts of problems.
“He was aggressive, strong, quick and took his goal great and that gave us real platform.”
Similar comments could be applied to Steve Mouyokolo in defence with the former Hull and Wolves defender sticking gamely to his task in the middle of defence.
For some time Lennon has been looking for a striker with a strong physical presence to add a fresh dimension to his side.
It’ll take time for the rest of the team to adapt to Balde’s style of play as well ass the striker adapting to the way that Celtic operate.
Apart from Balde there were impressive displays from three of the emerging talents at Celtic Park as well as an eye-catching return to action for Adam Matthews.
Jackson Irvine looked perfectly at ease playing 90 minutes in the centre of the park with Darnell Fisher putting in an accomplished second half display at right-back.
With Liverpool pushing hard for an equaliser 17-year-old Stuart Findlay was thrown into central defence and put in a number of great interceptions to keep the Celtic goal intact.
“Probably the younger players have learned a lot about themselves,” Lennon added. “I couldn’t have asked any more from them really.
“I thought first half we were really good but we flagged a little bit at the end and we were probably fortunate to win.
“I’ve looked at the performance overall and thought they can compete at this level.
“I won’t get carried away with it obviously but there were some great performances.
“The quality Liverpool has you are always going to be on the back foot and I thought we could have done better when we broke the play up but we rushed our first pass but that is only a wee criticism.
“We defended well as a unit and our goalkeepers made some good saves when needed.”
On way back from Dublin. Excellent display and effort from a very inexperienced and youthful team. If the first team show the same level of effort, the group stages should be within reach.
Hail Hail
please neil give the youngsters more experience in domestic games and use the regulars in europe
Paul I said that last year, I just hope Lennies learned from playing the same team most of the time last year..
A very good team performance by an inexperienced line up. Irvine played a great match, one of many future matches hopefully. Celtic were outnumbered in the stands but put the Liverpool fans to shame with Celtic’s non stop singing! Well done the fans.
I must say Brendan, The Wullie Maley song was especially magical.
Spledid stuff.
HH
A great match for the Celtic youngsters and playing in front of 50,000. They played great against the big spenders of Liverpool.Hail hail the Celtic.