Europa League: Brave Celtic edged out of Europe after draw with Udinese

CELTIC manager Neil Lennon believes his team have proved they are ideally suited to top level continental competition despite their elimination from the Europa League last night.

As he reflected with pride on Celtic’s performance in a 1-1 draw against Udinese in Italy which was not enough to take them through to the knockout phase of the tournament, Lennon also claimed his team’s development has been stalled by the style of football they engage in on a weekly basis in the SPL.

Their attempt to win for the first time in the club’s history on Italian soil began brightly with Gary Hooper giving them a 29th minute lead, only for Udinese talisman Antonio Di Natale to equalise in first half stoppage time.

Celtic needed a string of fine saves from goalkeeper Fraser Forster in the second half, but finished the game strongly with Lennon adamant they should have been awarded a late penalty kick for handball against Udinese defender Joel Ekstrand.

He was forced to settle for a third place finish in Group I, behind Atletico Madrid and Udinese, but feels his players have grown in stature throughout the campaign.

“You can see that a lot of our players have adapted to European football very well,” said Lennon. “The Scottish game might possibly hold them back a little bit at times. But on the European stage and platform, they excel.

“There were some really top class performances tonight from such a young Scottish team. I’ve been getting asked a lot of negative questions about them, but I think this team should be given credit for the way they have gone about their business in this tournament. Udinese are probably the best team we have faced in my time as manager and we are very unfortunate not to come away with a victory. All credit to Udinese, they are an excellent side and you can see why they are up there.

“But we feel we have the start of a pretty good side ourselves. What they’ve got to do now is transmit that from European football to domestic honours and keep playing with the same intensity, tempo and quality they showed tonight. My worry was that we might have got outrun in midfield, but it was far from it. What’s been pleasing about this campaign is that in all three games away from home, we have created good chances. We have been brave and we’ve played good football.

“I take a lot of positives from the game. From the first whistle, right to the death, I thought we were fantastic as a team. There were also some wonderful individual performances.

“To come here and play against a team at the top of Serie A, take the game to them, play the football we played and create the chances we made, I can’t speak highly enough of my team.

“I know what these players can do and I thought there were some exceptional performances tonight. Georgios Samaras, James Forrest and Gary Hooper caused Udinese all sorts of problems for the majority of the night.

“Our midfield three also played well. I thought Ki Sung Yueng had a tremendous game, Scott Brown got stronger as the game went on and Beram Kayal did what he does. My back four were pretty solid. I know the game opened up in the second half, when we had to take chances as we needed to win the game. That was when Fraser Forster pulled off some wonderful saves.”

Lennon was upset by Greek referee Michael Koukoulakis’ failure to award Celtic a late penalty, compounding his resentment at the 88th minute penalty awarded to Udinese in the 1-1 draw between the teams at Parkhead in September.

“I’m disappointed we haven’t qualified,” added Lennon. “If you look over the piece, the penalty Udinese got at Celtic Park has probably made the difference. That was a joke of a decision. I thought we should have had a penalty at the end of the game tonight when Daniel Majstorovic headed it on to their centre back’s arm. From where I was, it was a clear handball and should have been a penalty.”

Lennon praised the conduct of the Celtic fans during the game, although the club could face fresh disciplinary proceedings from Uefa after flares were let off before kick-off and an offensive banner directed at European football’s governing body was held up. He added: “From where I was, it looked as though the supporters behaved themselves impeccably. I hope it’s not going to be the case that there is any action.”