Strachan was delighted with the performance of midfielder Aiden McGeady

"He was awesome. There are a couple of subtle changes to his game that he has taken on board," said Strachan.

"Along with his technical ability, his physical ability is fantastic. He's always in the gym. The ones who are always in the gym seem to be playing."

Strachan added: "He is now using that God-given talent and enhancing it."

Celtic v Benfica match report

News conference: Gordon Strachan

The Celtic boss is also pleased at the way McGeady now contributes to the team.

"He's enjoying himself at the minute, but he's enjoying himself for us, not for him. When he's not got the ball he's a good team-mate as well," Strachan told the media after the match.

The win means Celtic have a reasonable chance of progressing to the last 16.

In their last two games they take on Shakhtar Donetsk on 18 November then travel to play AC Milan on 4 December.

Strachan insisted: "We're still in there. I'm happy with the performances so far.

"We had to convince the players that wasn't good enough in the first half.

"I told them to take two or three passes, to get settled. We were too quick at relinquishing the ball."

Another impressive Celt on the night was McGeady's fellow midfielder Scott Brown.

And he has accused Augustin Binya of trying to break his leg with a disgraceful challenge five minutes from the final whistle.

The Benfica player was sent off for the malicious stamp.

"I'm all right," said Brown. "It was a bad challenge but I've come through it.

"I don't think the guy should ever have done that. He obviously tried to do me as hard as possible.

"Hopefully Uefa will deal with it properly. The referee dealt with it very well and sent him off right away," he added.