Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Lennon bemoans wasted first-half as Celtic crash out of Champions League
NEIL Lennon bemoaned a “wasted” first half and some self-destructive defending after his Celtic side crashed out of the
Champions League.
The Hoops were heading out on away goals before
George Tucudean netted with the last kick of the ball to seal a 4-3 win for Cluj at
Celtic Park and a 5-4 aggregate victory for the
Romanians.
Celtic’s first two efforts on target came in the opening minutes of the second half and they came from a goal down to lead just after the hour mark through
James Forrest and
Odsonne Edouard.
They had chances for a third but a handball under no pressure from Scott
Brown allowed Billel
Omrani to level from the spot and the goalscorer struck again four minutes a f t e r R y a n C h r i st i e ’s quickfire response.
Lennon said: “The first half we were so passive, no tempo, I don’t know where that came from.
“We weren’t physical or aggressive enough and certainly didn’t work hard enough to stop crosses, second balls. We got a warning and didn’t stop the cross and then we do the exact same thing again.
“At half-time we got after them a little bit and got the right response but we shot ourselves in the foot with the goals we conceded.
“The first goal you are thinking ‘ right wake-up call’, the second goal was an individual mistake, the third goal we had plenty of defenders back but we just let the guy run off us and get the shot away and should have done better with the rebound.
“We had enough chances to win the game but we wasted 45 minutes. If we had played anywhere near as well in the first half as we did second half, we would have been through.”
Celtic now drop down to the Europa League play-offs where they will face AIK Stockholm or
Moldovan side Sheriff.