Celtic face all-or-nothing clash in Italy

Last night’s 1-0 defeat at home to Atletico Madrid means that Lennon’s men must now win their final Group I fixture against Udinese in north-eastern Italy on 15 December if they are to progress to the knockout phase of the tournament.

Celtic have never won on Italian soil in their 49-year European history, having suffered six defeats and earned two draws in their previous eight visits to the country.

Put that alongside their woeful modern-day record on the road in Europe, with just one win from their last 32 away games, and it leaves Lennon under no illusions about the difficulty of the assignment in the Fruili Stadium against the current Serie A title challengers.

“It’s a tall order now for us to go through,” said Lennon.

“Udinese are an excellent side and we have not won away from home for a while in Europe. We will go there and give it everything we’ve got but we’ll have to be wary of Udinese who will probably be on the front foot from the off.”

Udinese drew 0-0 away to bottom-placed Rennes in last night’s other Group I match, leaving them in need of only a draw against Celtic to join already-qualified Atletico in the next stage of the competition.

Celtic are three points behind Udinese and would climb above them on both head-to-head standings and goal difference if they could pull off a famous victory in Italy.

The qualification equation may yet need to be re-assessed, of course, if Swiss club Sion are successful in their ongoing bid for reinstatement to the tournament. For the moment, Lennon is satisfied with the experience his players have gained from their participation in the Europa League and had no complaints about the standard of their display last night.

“We made some great chances and matched Atletico for the majority of the game, if not bettered them,” said Lennon.

“It was an excellent performance and we deserved better. I’m delighted with the players. We created more chances tonight than we did in our previous game here when we beat Rennes 3-1.

“At the start of this group, I would have settled for going into the final match still in with a chance of reaching the next round. We were probably the underdog of the four teams in the group and I have seen gradual progress and improvement in all of our performances. It’s a great stage for these players.

“We came up against an excellent side tonight, who defended very well and counter-attacked very well. Credit to our players who had a real go at it.”

The only goal of the match was scored by Turkish striker Arda Turan in the 30th minute and was one which Celtic should have prevented. Midfielder Beram Kayal appeared to duck out of the way of Turan’s shot when he could have blocked it, before goalkeeper Fraser Forster could only help the ball on its way into the net despite getting both hands to it. Lennon said: “I think Beram just misjudged it and Fraser has not seen it until late on.

“He couldn’t do much about it and it was a late reaction. I’m not going to be over critical about the goal.”

Lennon was also philosophical about the goal Celtic had disallowed in the 67th minute when substitute Gary Hooper was in an offside position after Anthony Stokes had helped the ball towards him with his arm.

“I’ve seen it again,” said Lennon. “Gary was not offside initially but when Anthony pushed the ball on, he was maybe half a yard offside. We were a wee bit unfortunate there.”

There were some raised eyebrows among the home support at Hooper starting the evening on the substitutes’ bench, having netted a hat-trick in the 5-0 SPL win over St Mirren on Saturday, but Lennon felt his team selection and tactics were vindicated.

“We wanted to match Atletico in midfield,” he explained.

“I was concerned that if we had gone our normal 4-4-2, we would have been outnumbered there and Diego would have made use of the extra man for them.”

It was Celtic’s first defeat in 10 games, bringing an end to an unbeaten run which has seen them close the gap on Rangers at the top of the SPL from 12 points to four. Lennon does not expect it to have any adverse effect on their current domestic form, however.

“Why should it kill our momentum?” he added. “We played well against a top quality side tonight and had some brilliant performances from some of our players.”

Lennon does have fresh injury concerns for Sunday’s league game against Dundee United at Tannadice, however, with Joe Ledley and Victor Wanyama both sustaining damage last night.

“Joe has twisted an ankle and we’ll need to wait and see how bad it is,” said Lennon. “He’s certainly a doubt for Sunday.

“Victor picked up a dead leg and he could be doubtful for the weekend as well.”