Kayal backed by Lennon over alleged duck

Celtic’s stand-in skipper appeared to duck to avoid Arda Turan’s 25-yard drive, which beat Fraser Forster for the only goal of the game, and the incident dominated most of the reporting of the penultimate Group I fixture.

But Lennon said: “Again, as I said last night, I think he just misjudged the flight [of the ball]. Beram doesn’t duck out of anything so to accuse him of that is ridiculous. I don’t know if these people actually see Beram play.

“He is one of the bravest players I’ve seen for quite a while and he puts his body on the line for the club more often than not. I doubt it very much [if Beram feels bad]. He was one of our best players last night.”

Kayal’s part in the goal came on the day he was widely quoted as saying that Celtic had the best players and played the best football in Scotland. The comments were assumed to be a swipe at Rangers, but Lennon played them down and also played down the suggestion that the headlines will be pinned up on the Ibrox dressing room to be used as a motivational tool.

“Well, they might, they might not, I don’t know,” he said. “We have had stuff said about us in the past. Whether they are genuine comments or misconstrued or not, I don’t know but I am not going to berate Beram for doing an interview and for people to then put their own slant on it.

“What he meant was he believes we have good players and a good team but we have to go out and prove that. I don’t think he is that sort of lad to come out and boast about things or taunt people or anything like that. I think some people are putting a little salt and vinegar on the story.”