Pundits blown away by Celtic hitting Champions League elite as Lennon, Brown Sutton and Nevin coo over 'best ever'

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Celtic pundits lavished praise on the Hoops for their superb 4-1 dismantling of RB Leipzig at Parkhead and all agreed that Brendan Rodgers got his tactics spot on with a high-octane performance packed with quality.

The Premiership champions had fell behind when a mistake from Cameron Carter-Vickers allowed Christoph Baumgartner to head home from close range. But that goal simply spurred Celtic into action, with red-hot Nicolas Kuhn netting a quickfire brace to give his team a 2-1 lead at the interval.

The Hoops really went in the ascendency after the break and bagged a deserved third goal when Reo Hatate pounced on an error from Leipzig stopper Peter Gulacsi to knock home goal number four. The victory has moved Celtic up to 13th in the revamped Champions League group phase table with three wins from five matches and confidence is now growing that the men from Parkhead can clinch a place in the knockout rounds.

And pundits across the board were thrilled with what they saw against a side that currently sit in second place in the Bundesliga. Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland, Pat Nevin said: "Give Kuhn his moment, but give every player their moment. They were all eights and nines tonight. Nine-and-a-half from McGregor, he was extraordinary.

"Celtic are a better team than RB Leipzig. It's not a one-off, or a bit of luck. Celtic, player for player, are better than RB Leipzig. I'm not mildly surprised by this. If you want to know how to do closing down high up the pitch, get a video of that. You don't do it any better than that. That's world class."

James McFadden added - "It was outstanding. Celtic had a spell in the first half where in the past, they might not have been able to stand up to the challenge and pressure from RB Leipzig or whoever else. They came through that, totally dominated the second half. If you give the fans something to cheer, this place is unbelievable

"Celtic stuck with it, with how they want to play. They've gained so much control within that. They were always going to be put under pressure, especially defensively with set plays. They rode it out and did it their way. They've not changed and kept their belief."

Over on TNT Sports, former Hoops trio Neil Lennon, Scott Brown and Joe Hart also had plenty of good stuff to say about their old club. Lennon said: "That's one of the best home performances I have seen from a Celtic team in 25 years. I thought they were absolutely brilliant. I thought they managed the same second half but created chances and played beautiful football. Just so brave and a joy to watch"

Co-commentator Hart added: "It was a really, really, really great European performance tonight. The quality they showed throughout the game, Callum McGregor ran the show while Nicolas Kuhn sparkled."

Scott Brown: "They picked their times to go and press and when they did everyone did it together. It was a proper team effort and was lovely to watch. You can see the movement from one side of the park to the other. They just flew.

Former Celtic goal machine Chris Sutton was also very impressed, tweeting: "One of the best displays I’ve seen from a Celtic team in the Champions League. A performance of real authority and class against a good Leipzig team. Trusty phenomenal again. Hatate, Kuhn, McGregor outstanding."

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