NEIL Lennon is confident his side can progress in the Europa League if they replicate their first half performance against FC Copenhagen. Celtic came away from the Danish capital with a 1-1 draw in their first leg of the last 32 tie.

The Hoops produced a high-tempo attacking start to the game, and could have gone ahead inside 30 seconds if not for an excellent save from Karl-Johan Johnsson to deny Odsonne Edouard.

The Swedish stopper made another great save to prevent Edouard moments later but he could do little to deny the Frenchman a third time when the Celtic striker coolly dinked the ball over the keeper with a wonderful finish.

Neil Lennon was full of praise for how Celtic started the game and the way they created the first goal.

“It was a brilliant start and we could have been two or three up in the first half," he said. "We had really good control of the game and Fraser only really had one effort to deal with.

“It was a brilliant move for the goal, nice and slick from Ryan Christie and Callum McGregor, who I thought was brilliant again tonight. It was a beautifully-weighted pass into Odsonne's feet and it was a class finish from a class player. I thought Odsonne might have done that with the first one and lifted that chance over the keeper.”

FC Copenhagen were much improved in the second half and Celtic found themselves busy with their defensive duties. The home side eventually found a way through the Hoops defence and snatched an equaliser, while they were only denied a victory on the night because of Fraser Forster's penalty save.

“We gave away a sloppy goal from our point of view,” Neil Lennon said. “We gave away possession around our box and that happened far too often in the second half.

“On the counter-attack I thought we had some great chances to put the tie beyond Copenhagen but we weren’t ruthless enough tonight and in the end we had to rely on Fraser to make the save from the penalty. I’m delighted that we have an away goal to take back to Celtic Park next week.

“We’re good at home and we’ll have our partisan crowd behind us. If we can play like we did in the first half we should be okay.”

Neil Lennon: Home crowd can help us progress in Europa League