Why Celtic's goalless Champions League draw vs Atalanta is one of Brendan Rodgers 'best results of his career'

Neil Lennon has labelled Celtic’s goalless draw with Atalanta as one of manager Brendan Rodgers’s best ever results in his managerial career.

The former Hoops boss heaped praise on a strong defensive display from Rodgers’ side to keep last season’s Europa League champions at bay in Bergamo, securing a precious point in their quest to reach the play-offs at the very least.

Celtic had to ride their luck at times against the Serie A giants, with Croatian attacker Mario Pasalic striking the crossbar in the first-half and passing up several other chances to score. However, Japanese pair Reo Hatate and Daizen Maeda both went close for the visitors as they stood form to register an important clean sheet without the presence of first-choice centre-back Cameron Carter-Vickers.

Lennon believes the result could have a massive impact on the Scottish champions European campaign as he hyped up the result.

Speaking on TNT Sports, the Parkhead icon stated: “It’s a hugely significant result for Celtic and Brendan, and I think it’s one of Brendan’s best results of his career. To come away against the Europa League champions off the back of a devastating defeat, obviously he and the team have had a lot of criticism, but they have proven that they can go away from home and dig out a result.

“That was one question everybody was asking about them. I almost feel as though Celtic, at Celtic Park, can beat anybody. This is a huge point in essence to get through to the last 16 now. I hope we don't all get carried away and we take it one game at a time because Leipzig at home is going to be a real test.

“But that for me, I'm with Johann (Mjallby) on that - I really enjoyed that. I really enjoyed that side of Celtic, digging in. It was a team effort. I thought the two centre-backs and Kasper were magnificent as well. That is your fundamentals for grinding out results in Europe.”

Experienced goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel was kept busy in Italy but claimed the back four in front of him “fought for their lives” to secure a share of the spoils.

He admitted: “It was a tough game, but we knew it was going to be a tough game coming here. We knew that we had to learn from the Dortmund game and we had to defend for our lives. We did that. I’m very proud of the boys, I think it was an incredible defensive performance, and when we then had the ball we carved out some very good chances.

“It’s always going to be tough, I think they’re the highest-scoring team in Europe at home or at least in Italian football. To come here and get a point is a good point. We took a little bit more of a practical approach in this one where we took a few less chances in the build-up because of their man-to-man system.

“We tried to exploit that and I thought that it worked a couple of times, but it’s always going to be difficult away from home in Europe coming up against a system that is so aggressive. i thought we did alright.”