Rodgers hails centre-back pairing after qualifying

Boss Brendan Rodgers praised young centre-backs Jack Hendry and Kristoffer Ajer after Celtic dug out a goalless draw against Rosenborg to qualify for the Champions League third qualifier.

Celtic had to withstand an aerial bombardment late in the game but Norway defender Ajer, 20, and 23-year-old Hendry stood firm to set up a meeting against AEK Athens with the first game in Glasgow next week.

Rodgers said: “We have achieved the objective, which over the two games was to get through. It was a different type of game to last week.

“Rosenborg played very well in the first half, they obviously needed to come out and take the initiative and they played well.

“We couldn’t quite build the game as well as we would have liked but I was very pleased with the way we defended – that resilience and mentality.

“The second half we changed it slightly to gain more control and I thought in the first 20 minutes we were able to take the sting out of the game and play to our tempo more.

“In the last 20 minutes we had to deal with direct balls into the box and I was very pleased with the two young centre-halves, they really stood up to that.

“Tonight was a great demonstration that you can’t always play perfect football, especially away in Europe, when you are under pressure and there are questions asked about your resilience and I thought we stood up to that very well.

Rodgers will now turn his attention to AEK Athens and added: “I haven’t watched them yet.

“They will be a good side but we are a good side and we hope to show that next week.”