Leigh Griffiths stole the show on Thursday night but Filip Benkovic was not far behind.

The on-loan Celtic defender glided through the game offering every indication that he is worth the £13m that Leicester shelled out for him in August.

With the path to the Foxes first-team blocked, Benkovic admitted that it was a no-brainer to get out and assure himself of first-team football elsewhere. That meant that just a fortnight after signing for the Premier League side, the defender completed a season long loan deal with Celtic.

It quickly became apparent to the 21-year-old that he would not play regularly this season in England given the fact that Manchester United’s interest in Harry Maguire came to nothing in the face of the £75m pricetag put on the player by Leicester.

And with Maguire ahead of him, Benkovic wanted to challenge himself elsewhere rather than take comfort on a bench.

“I made the transfer to Leicester,” he said. “I saw their situation, there were a lot of defenders. Some players were £80 million.

“I looked at the situation realistically. I wanted somewhere to have a better chance to play and to improve my game.

“Only with games you can get better and better. So I was happy that this happened. It was maybe on the last day.

“I waited a long time but in the end everything settled well and now I’m very happy.

“If I had stayed there I’d maybe have played some cup games. The situation was like this, they will play Maguire after they rejected Manchester United’s offer.

“But also in training I learned in that month a lot from them. They have so experienced players and they gave me some good advice. But it’s football and sometimes you must look to other places to get a chance.”

Benkovic made his debut last Friday night against St Mirren in Paisley and was particularly impressive against Rosenborg on Thursday night.

The player played in the group stages of the Champions League last term in Croatia and looked assured and comfortable throughout.

The early indications are that he can go on to form a central partnership with Dedryck Boyata as Celtic look to build on recent strong defensive displays.

The Parkhead side go into tomorrow afternoon’s game at Rugby Park on the back of five consecutive clean sheets as they address an area that has been a perennial achilles heel.

I didn’t train so many times with Dedryck because of the international break,” admitted Benkovic. “But when I did we trained very well. Here there are some new tactics which I like and I know myself I have space to improve on each level of my game.

“Dedryck is here and there are other defenders too but we played on Thursday night after playing together in my first game too and I can learn because he’s a very experienced player. He’s played all his career at the top level and he plays for Belgium too so I’m very happy to be at a team with these big players.

“It was a very good game for us on Thursday. The atmosphere was fantastic and I really enjoyed it. It was a pleasure to play in this game.

“It was my first game at Celtic Park and it was an unbelievable feeling. The fans were behind us for 90 minutes. They trusted in us and we believed in ourselves.

“We scored at the end of the game and it was a very important three points. This is why we play football, because of this.

“If someone asks you why you play football you bring him here and you see everything. It was very emotional and I’m very happy to be here.”

The relentless pressure at Celtic with the demands for success were also a key selling point of the club for the Croatian under-21 internationalist. The player expects that the incessant drive to deliver will bring out the best in him as he looks to make a name for himself this season.

“Celtic is a club only interested in winning – winning titles, winning games. We have a lot of games because of Europe, the league and cup,” he said.

“We want to win the league and cup and these are our goals. Until the end of the season we want to improve our play.”

Leigh Griffiths brought out an almighty roar with his goal that broke Rosenborg’s resistance on Thursday night – a goal that Benkovic believed was Celtic’s just reward.

“They came here not to play so much. But we sort of expected it because in the games before they stayed behind.

“It was a tough game and we needed a lot of time to get to their goal. We had some opportunities but we believe, until the last minute. God gave us it back you know.”

Celtic head to Rugby Park tomorrow for a lunchtime kick-off with the task of trying to build some momentum after a stop-start opening to their league campaign.

Their challenge will be compounded by the artificial and much disliked turf in Kilmarnock but Benkovic has maintained that Celtic simply need to get on with it.

“I did not know we will play on plastic,” he said. “But this is football and on each pitch we must give everything. If we play on plastic pitch we will train for it. If we play like a team not individually, fight for each other I believe we will get a result.”