BRITTLE BHOYS BREAK
Two-goal lead is thrown away
NEIL LENNON felt a lack of steel cost his side victory in the San Siro as they contrived to throw away a two-goal lead.
Comfortably ahead against AC Milan inside 14 minutes thanks to Tom Rogic and Odsonne Edouard, Celtic were on course to record just their second- ever win in Italy until the roof caved in.
Milan halved t he deficit on 24 minutes when Hakan Calhanoglu’s free-kick wrongf ooted Vasilis Barkas, with Samu Castillejo levelling two
minutes later. The Italians took just five second-half minutes to get in front, with Jens Petter Hauge allowed to waltz through the Celtic back line and substitute Brahim Diaz completed the scoring eight minutes from time thanks to more lax defending from the visitors. Lennon felt there were a significant number of positives to be taken from his side’s attacking performance but was again left to rue the soft nature of goals they are habitually conceding. ‘I was delighted in a lot of aspects of our play,’ said the Celtic manager. ‘I thought we looked a real threat. ‘We’d a chance to go three up when (Gianluigi) Donnarumma made a great save from Callum (McGregor). ‘It’s a bit of quality at the first goal and a bit of naivety at their second. ‘It’s our free-kick, it’s 2-1, we just need to settle and we take it quickly. But it shows the players are in a positive mindset. ‘The third and fourth goals from our point of view are poor. We’ve let ourselves down, not being physical enough in the tackle at times. ‘It’s not as if we were cut open. We’d plenty of players back to deal with them but we don’t.’ Celtic have now conceded 17 goals in five Europa League games and have picked up just two wins in 11 matches, with just one clean sheet in that run. Asked if there is a problem with the mindset of the group when they lose a goal, the manager added: ‘It may be as they’ve conceded a lot of goals in this group. ‘If that’s the case, we have to work on that. At 2-2 at half-time, the game is pretty even when we’ve been in the ascendancy. ‘So we’ve let ourselves down in that aspect by not coming in with our tails up.’ Despite the fact Celtic were already out of the competition, the result will do little to take the pressure off Lennon’s shoulders. The target of vitriolic abuse after losing at home to Ross County in the Betfred Cup last weekend, Celtic now welcome St Johnstone on Sunday desperately needing a victory. Adamant he saw encouraging signs last night, Lennon added: ‘I thought we had better chances at 3-2. ‘I’ve got to take the positives from that — from the way we played, the way we passed the ball, the way we created chances. ‘We looked a good team tonight. The body language was good, the attitude was good — coming off the back of a bad result at the weekend. ‘We scored two really good goals and had really good chances to win the game. ‘I wanted us too get a bit of respectability back to our performance and I felt we got that. ‘I’m sitting here disappointed as it’s another defeat and it’s a sore one to take. ‘But I’m also very proud of the reaction and their will to put on a performance. We looked far more like a Celtic team that I know.’