Sorry Celtic crash to four-star Utrecht

CELTIC manager Neil Lennon admits last night’s Europa League exit at the hands of Utrecht was just as bad as their infamous shock defeat to Ross County in the Active Nation Scottish Cup last season.

The Hoops had boasted a 2-0 advantage from last week’s first leg at Parkhead and appeared to be in the driving seat.

But a Ricky van Wolfswinkel hat-trick – which included two penalties – and a goal from Barry Maguire (who was called up to the Republic of Ireland U21s last year but rejected the invitation) saw Utrecht progress in style with a 4-0 win on the night to leave Lennon reeling.

“It feels as bad as Ross County, yeah,” he said.

“We had a decent advantage and we only needed to score one goal. But it’s the overall performance, we were second best in just about every area.

“The first penalty was soft and for the second we shot ourselves in the foot. We’ve gone one down and just need to weather it and we get one goal and win the game. But we never gave ourselves a chance.

“Right throughout the middle of the team we were poor. We said, ‘look you might have to weather a storm for 15 minutes.’ But we keep shooting ourselves in the foot.

“That’s three penalties in two away games we have given away and then we are not giving ourselves a chance. At half time we said we were still well in the tie. We just need to score a goal and they have to get two.

“But I was just about to get back in my seat when we were 3-0 down. So it’s just a poor performance overall and I take full responsibility for that myself.”

Celtic’s poor away record in Europe – they have now won just once in 28 games on the road – means Lennon was never entirely comfortable going into this match but he admits there was also a problem with the mentality of his team.

He said: “What I said afterwards is probably best left to the privacy of the dressing room, but again I can’t keep going on about home truths.

“I said everything I wanted to say after Ross County and I’m not just going to blame the players this time. Myself and my staff have to carry the can for this as well.

“I was always wary of this tie but didn’t think we would play as badly as that.”

Despite heavy rainfall, the Dutch were able to overcome the conditions and progress in style. Utrecht coach Ton du Chatinier said: “It rained today so there was a chance the match would be cancelled but in the end the pitch was better than we expected.

“The team was prepared very well, they saw pictures of the first match in Glasgow. I need to pay a big compliment to the team.”

UTRECHT: Vorm, Cornelisse, Nesu, Schut, Silberbauer, Mertens (Nijholt 74), Asare (Maguire 53), Lensky, Wuytens, Duplan, van Wolfswinkel (Oar 90).

CELTIC: Zaluska, Juarez (Ki 65), Majstorovic, Hooiveld, Cha, Samaras (McCourt 72), Brown (Moloney 51), Ledley, Kayal, Fortune, Forrest.

Referee: Carlos Velasco Carballo (Spain)