Celtic manager Neil Lennon said overcoming Shakhter Karagandy to book a place in the Champions League was the greatest achievement of his trophy-laden career in football.
Celtic needed goals from Kris Commons, Georgios Samaras and a dramatic stoppage time strike from James Forrest to clinch a 3-0 victory at Celtic Park in the second leg of their play-off match that sent them through on aggregate following a 2-0 defeat in Kazakhstan.
Last season Lennon, who won a host of trophies as a player and now manager at Celtic, led his side to the last 16 of Europe’s elite competition following famous wins over Spartak Moscow and Barcelona.
However, after losing influential midfielder Victor Wanyama, last season’s top-scorer Gary Hooper and key defender Kelvin Wilson in the transfer window the Celtic manager says the win over the Kazakhstan minnows tops the lot.
“It’s the greatest thing I’ve ever done in football. The last three months have all been about preparation for this,” he said.
“I’m relieved and there is a good sense of pride in what we have achieved tonight considering we lost Hooper, Wanyama and Wilson who were the spine of the team really for the last year-and-a-half.