The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Rodgers hails resilience
Brendan Rodgers praised the resilience of his Celtic players after they came from behind to grab a crucial 1-1 draw.
He said: “It was an outstanding result for us. Collectively the mentality was the most pleasing thing.
“I think we were all written off before the game, everyone pretty clear in their opinion of the game, 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 the pre-season came into effect.
“I was disappointed with the goal, it is nothing new, but we showed a wonderful mentality to keep fighting and in the second half we restricted them to not so many clear chances and ended up scoring a fantastic goal.
“It is only half-time but (it is) a very important result for us.”
Rodgers was also delighted with 20-year-old Irish centre back Eoghan O’Connell, who was making his European debut on a “difficult, unnatural” artificial surface.
Rodgers said: “I thought he was outstanding. For a young player – he has been on the fringes for a few years – coming into that environment, under pressure, he had very few mistakes in the game.
“He coped in a very difficult situation.”
However, O’Connell was as culpable as any of the Hoops players when Astana scored their goal from a corner and it is an issue the Irishman will address.
The Parkhead boss said: “I think there has been an issue there with set-pieces, long before I came in.
“We have lost the man too easy so you put yourself under pressure.”