Thomas Rogne: Celtic displayed their growing maturity in Benfica draw

Thomas Rogne believes Celtic’s draw with Benfica is another indication of how far the team has come in terms of European experience.

Neil Lennon’s side fell at the first hurdle when attempting to qualify for the Champions League two seasons ago, before being handed a route into the Europa League groups last campaign despite being eliminated by Sion.

Having lifted the SPL title, Celtic went on to record two wins and two clean sheets on their travels in the qualifying round and, having reached the group stage, Rogne believes an inexperienced side is continuing to prove their worth.

“I think we showed we can cope with a good team like Benfica,” he said. Overall we are quite happy.

“For this team it is the first time in the Champions League. Not a lot of players have experienced it before and it was important for us.

“It was a good point. We'll take the point and I think we can get a result away from home as well. If we play like this, we can get results anywhere.

“I think we showed in the qualifiers we played two really good games away from home, which is always difficult. I think this team has matured and we are not as naive as maybe we were before.

“We've kept a few clean sheets now in Europe. We want to go away from home and do the same.”

Rogne came off the bench in the 0-0 draw and says the team just came up short in their quest to record a victory.

“We went out and wanted to win the game,” he added. “It doesn't matter where you play, especially when you are at home. We want to play our own game and be attacking.

“I thought we played well. The only thing was the last little bit, we didn't create enough big changes. But that will come.”

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