Brendan Rodgers is in agreement with Celtic fans, Eoghan O’Connell played pretty damn well on Wednesday.
The 20-year-old Cork native made his European debut for Celtic as they secured a valuable 1-1 draw in their Champions League third-round qualifier away to Astana.
The Irish defender and cousin of Ireland and Munster rugby legend Paul O’Connell was drafted into the team due to Celtic’s injury problems, but had a solid game in the heart of the Scottish outfit’s defence.
His performance was very well received by Hoops fans.
Celtic fans were very impressed with their young Irish defender on his European debut https://t.co/TE9t83k0pO
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) July 27, 2016
Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers also had some very encouraging things to say about O’Connell’s role in the match. Although he admitted it wasn’t a flawless performance by any means, he seemed blown away by how well he reacted when things didn’t go his way.
“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.”
“You would expect him to make some as a young player but he coped in a very difficult situation.”
These post-match quotes from Rodgers were doubly impressive as you’ll notice he managed to pretty much say the player showed “great character” without mentioning the c-word (get your minds out of the gutter) at all.
Listen to our GAA podcast with Colm Parkinson. Click here to subscribe on iTunes.
