Celtic centre-half Auston Trusty has praised his defensive colleague Colby Donovan, arguing there isn't a big drop-off between the 19-year-old and first-choice right-back Alistair Johnston.
Donovan started Wednesday evening's 3-0 victory over LASK in the Champions League playoff first leg and stood out.
"He's very aggressive," Trusty said of his teammate. "Last year in the Europa League, me and him had a good partnership on the right side, when I was playing on the right side.
"I think he's really good. He’s really young but you think he's a lot older than he is. He's very young and has a lot of potential.
"He performs well on the big stage too, so that's what you want to see."
Donovan performed admirably in place of Johnston, who has missed Celtic's last two matches with a hamstring issue.
The Canadian impressed at the 2026 World Cup, with his early-season injury a considerable blow to manager Martin O'Neill.
That said, Donovan's recent displays have eased any qualms.
"That's the squad you want," Trusty continued. "You want people to be able to step in and do a job.
"Only 11 people can start, and then only five subs, but anybody that comes into the game, we have a squad where people can actually affect the game. It's not really a big drop-off."
Celtic travel to Linz for next week's second leg against LASK holding a 3-0 aggregate lead. Goals from Benjamin Nygren and Camilo Duran have given O'Neill's side considerable leeway in Austria, but the squad know the tie is far from over yet.
"It's good, it gives us momentum," Trusty said of the advantage. "We have a good number of goals to have some momentum going with us in the next game.
"But it's another 90 minutes to go and all eyes are on the next game.
"You can't be cocky, you can't be too full of yourself. Football is a crazy environment where if you give teams momentum, they can take it.
"And they're at home next game, so we've just got to go there and play our game. But we'll have the Celtic fans hopefully cheering us on and we'll be good."
Read more:
LASK were tricky customers on Wednesday and thought they had opened the scoring at Celtic Park inside the first minute.
In-form striker Samuel Adeniran was a constant threat and the visitors created 1.58 xG (expected goals).
"Looking back at their plays, it's just second balls and one ball over the top. Sort that out and then I think we will be solid," Trusty concluded.
Share