Published Thursday, 20 September 2012
Celtic skipper Scott Brown in action against Benfica's Pablo Aimar. (© Getty)
The Scottish champions may not have troubled the opposition's goal during their Group G opener at Parkhead on Wednesday night, but they did manage to keep a clean sheet of their own.
Lennon hopes the 0-0 result will allow his side "a little bit more respect" from the footballing world.
"We didn't work their keeper as much as we would have liked but saying that I was very pleased with the team performance tonight," the Lurgan man said.
"It was a very good tempo, a good shape to us, we were committed and played with real zest and no fear against a class side."
It was a decent start for us - it could have been better it could have been worse.
Neil Lennon
Lennon added: "I think they will probably be the happier going away, I don't think there was anything really between the teams."
Benfica boss Jorge Jesus didn't exactly share his view.
"We deserved victory," he said.
"Celtic are a hard team who play very aggressive football with high balls, but defensively we were very good and victory would have been deserved."
Celtic skipper Scott Brown was the only one of his team with Champions League experience going into the game and Benfica were certainly the heavy favourites to pick up all three points.
Next up for Lennon's men is an away trip to face Spartak Moscow, without the boost of a home win.
"You would like to win your home games - it makes things a little difficult for us, but it is not insurmountable," the coach said.