Brendan Rodgers refused to pin the blame on his players after they conceded a devasting last-minute goal against Lazio on Wednesday night.
Cameron Carter-Vickers - who made his long-awaited comeback from injury off the bench during the second half - gifted the ball away deep inside Celtic's half. It found its way to Matteo Guendouzi who clipped an inch-perfect cross in for Pedro to score with a terrific header at the back post. The striker headed it back to where it came from, leaving Joe Hart no chance as the Serie A giants clinched all three points in Group E.
Celtic's decade-long search for a victory on home soil in the Champions League goes on. Of course, bitterly disappointed, Rodgers wasn't happy with the defending for the Lazio winner. But the Irishman was full of praise for the performance by his side.
He said: "I was really disappointed for the players because they gave so much to the game. They scored a fantastic goal. I'm disappointed with the goal we conceded. We came out in the second half and apart from one chance early on, we looked like the team that would go on and win it and we thought we had done. We were just unfortunate that Daizen makes a touch and it left Luis Palma offside.
"I'm disappointed with the winning goal. You just have to secure the game at that point. That's just game management, you have to make sure you have control of the ball and the space before you vacate it. And just that one moment of quality with the cross and header sees us lose the game but I can't fault the players for the effort and commitment we showed.
"Yes, we did miss too many chances. That's something that's important at this level. We get into some really good areas but that's about quality and sadly we didn't quite have it in certain moments of the game.
"But I can't be critical of this group of players. What they've given the game against a good side with some top-quality technical players, we should have had more from that game."
One of the major talking points from the match was the officials' decision not to punish an elbow to the facial area of Reo Hatate.
Referee Donatas Rumšas missed the incident after Lazio's Elseid Hysaj clearly connected with the Japanese midfielder and VAR opted not to intervene. And Rodgers was less than enamoured by the referee's performance.
"They're not so good," the Celtic boss said. "There's a lot you see now and in Europe, it's a bit more precious even than the domestic game. I watched the Champions League games last night and obviously tonight, some strange decisions to be honest.
"I'll focus more on the performance and the performance deserved something from the game. We didn't quite get that but we'll fight another day.
"It's one where we'll do what we've always done. We'll analyse the performance and we'll see where we could do better. We'll be here again for Atletico to show the spirit and the fight. Let's see if we can get a result then."
