Chris Sutton praises Olivier Ntcham after Celtic’s Champions League win; labels centre-backs as brilliant

Follow us on Google Discover

Celtic picked up a fantastic win in their Champions League group as they beat Anderlecht 3-0 out in Belgium.

Olivier Ntcham

Chris Sutton told BT Sport during their live post-match coverage of Celtic’s Champions League clash of Anderlecht (broadcast on 27th September 2017 from 19:00) that he was impressed with the way that Olivier Ntcham recovered after a poor start to the game, before heaping praise upon Dedryck Boyata and Jozo Simunovic.

Brendan Rodgers’ men collected a massive win in Belgium as goals from Leigh Griffiths, Patrick Roberts and Scott Sinclair helped the Hoops to a 3-0 victory to move themselves third in the group heading into the back-to-back games with Bayern Munich.

Dedryck Boyata

The early stages of the contest gave little indication however, that such a scoreline would be on the cards with Celtic taking a while to get into the game, with Ntcham in particular looking poor on the ball.

But after the victory, Sutton suggested that the summer signing deserves credit for how he turned things around, while he was also hugely impressed by the two centre-backs who kept their opponents at bay.

Jozo Simunovic

“I didn’t think they started the best, but you have to credit them. They showed real maturity, especially in the second-half. The first goal was big and Celtic gained confidence because of that,” he told BT Sport’s live post-match coverage of the game.

“I thought that Ntcham stuck at it really well and will grow as a player because of that. And I thought the centre-halves – doubts over them to start with – they were absolutely brilliant.”

The win should undoubtedly give the Bhoys a tremendous boost of confidence heading into the remaining games in the group as few would have expected such an emphatic victory before the game kicked off.

And as Sutton suggests, Ntcham’s ability to make a dramatic improvement as the contest went on will give him great belief that he can stamp his authority on any fixture no matter how slowly he seems to start.