SCOTT Brown last night admitted Celtic’s win over Lazio in Rome ranked alongside the best European results of his entire career.
Brown, who missed the Champions League victory over Barcelona in 2012 due to an illness, became the first captain in the history of the Parkhead club to lead a team to victory in Italy at the Stadio Olimpico.
The midfielder, whose team secured a place in the last 32 of the Europa League with two Group E games remaining, believes the result shows how far the treble treble winners have progressed under Neil Lennon.
"It ranks right up there with my best wins in Europe with Celtic,” he said. "To become the first team to win on Italian shows you just how big it is.
"I was ill for the Barcelona game, but I watched it on TV that night and I was buzzing we won. It doesn't matter who plays, if Celtic win I am smiling. But to be part of that win in Rome was very special.
"We had to defend really had in those first 15 minutes and we worked so hard for the full game. We were very sloppy in the first 15 minutes and showed them too much respect. But after that we settled down and overall, we were probably the better team.
"To qualify with two games to go is big because people probably wrote us off after Cluj (Celtic got knocked out of the Champions League by their Romanian rivals). It was a hard group, but we have dug deep and got the results. We got a draw in Rennes and then took nine points against Cluj and Lazio.
"To win in Rome shows that we are learning, we are going forward as a team and it's exciting. Lazio have players who are supposedly worth £70 million so we had to up our game. We had to go and take our game to them and we did that. They have quality, but we have beaten them twice now so that says a lot.”
Many Celtic fans were against Lennon replacing Brendan Rodgers as manager on a full-time basis back in May and Brown admitted he was especially pleased for the Northern Irishman.
"The gaffer is buzzing and I am happy for him,” he said. "He came in with a big smile on his face and it's great because he's had to go through some hard times. It is the the right job at the right time for the gaffer. Along with Damien Duff and John Kennedy, he is incredible for us. It's a great team.
"As the game was going on, I did feel we had a chance. It was becoming so open and it was just counter attack after counter attack.
"Fraser (Forster) and the boys at the back dealt really well with the Lazio strikers and we were able to push bodies forward.
"Mo (Elyounoussi) and Ryan (Christie) worked their socks off and put their players under so much pressure. The winning goal just sums us up really.
"We won the ball back and then Oli (Ntcham) and Odsonne (Edouard) did their stuff. It was a great pass and a great finish. We all know Oli has that in his locker and he produced a quality finish.
"I actually thought his touch was a bit too heavy, but the angle didn't matter to him. We had the belief and trust in him and it was a special goal.”
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