Celtic boss Neil Lennon is certain his side are on the up despite his dodgy defence suffering another Europa League nightmare in the 4-2 defeat to Milan.
The 49-year-old was in a defiant mood despite watching his side suffer another comprehensive defeat after racing into a 2-0 lead after 14 minutes in the San Siro.
Milan battled back and grabbed four goals without reply after Tom Rogic and Odsonne Edouard had netted but the embattled Irishman refused to dwell on the negatives as his side's dreary record stands at two wins out of 11 in all competitions.
But Lennon believes Celtic should take great pride from their efforts as he namechecked Nir Bitton, Kris Ajer and Jeremie Frimpong for special praise.
He said: "I was delighted with a lot of aspects of our play tonight.
"I thought we looked a real threat, we had a chance to go 3-0, Donnarumma makes a great save from Callum McGregor. We were rampant at that stage.
"It's a bit quality for their first goal and (the second) it's a bit of naivety, but it shows us in a positive mindset.
"The third and fourth from our point of view are poor. Even at 3-2 I always thought we were in the game, Donnarumma's made a great save from Christie from the free kick.
"We looked a threat all night, but we let ourselves down with not being physical enough in the tackle at times. It;s not as if we have been cut open.
"That's the way the game went, that's where the tie was lost, there wasn't much between the teams. We probably had more attempts at goal and worked the keeper more than they did to us."
But Lennon refused to stick the boot into Vasilis Barkas after the Greek international suffered a night to forget and appeared to be at fault for Milan 's first and third goal.
The £5m keeper has endured a torrid start to his Celtic career and Lennon urged him to up his game at the weekend.
But tonight he refused to pin the Europa League blame on Barkas, adding: "I'm not going to single out individuals tonight, we'll analyse it as a group and take it forward from there."
