We're gutted to miss out - Douglas

Robert Douglas and his Celtic team-mates were devastated by their failure to reach the group stage of the Champions League.

The Scottish champions surrendered a 3-1 first leg lead, losing 2-0 in Switzerland last night to crash out on away goals to FC Basle.

Celtic have the consolation of a place in the UEFA Cup now, but will do little to lift manager Martin O’Neill and his gutted stars.

“The saves I made don’t matter because we’re out and it’s a team game,” said Douglas. “The boys are devastated with this result.

“We lost two early goals, but we still created a number of chances in both halves so it was very disappointing.

“We will have to get on with it now and concentrate on the league and try and put a run together in the UEFA Cup, although we don’t want to think about that now.

“Their keeper made some great saves and we couldn’t get the goal we needed. We didn’t do quite enough.”

The former Dundee goalkeeper refused to disclose just what the Celtic manager said to the players at half-time after conceding first-half goals to Christian Gimenez and Murat Yakin.

O’Neill was criticised for his decision to revert to an unusual back four, and when he changed it back to three at the break with Steve Guppy and Didier Agathe being introduced, Celtic created a number of good openings.

But Douglas claims the blame lies with the players and not the Irishman.

“What was said in the dressing room at half-time will stay there,” said Douglas.

“We let ourselves down by conceding two silly goals. From then on it was an uphill struggle.”

The Celtic manager refused to make excuses for his side’s disappointing exit and admitted Celtic deserved to go out.

“The word injustice wouldn’t come into it,” said O’Neill. “We knew what we had to do, but we lost the game 2-0.

“I know we created chances and I know we were maybe unlucky not to take one or two of them, but we knew from the first leg that Basle were capable of scoring goals.

“I felt that we needed to get a goal and I felt we would get a goal, but it didn’t happen.”

While Basle coach Christian Gross was overjoyed to lead his side into the Champions League for the first time in their history, he admitted they rode their luck to make it through.

Chris Sutton squandered a glorious chance in the dying seconds, goalkeeper Pascal Zuberbuhler made some impressive stops and Celtic also had a penalty turned down.

“It was a pleasant night for us,” admitted Gross. “We started the second leg in the best possible way.

“We’ve had some injury problems in the last few weeks, but never the less we remained optimistic.

“This is a perfect performance for the fans, but the goalkeeper also helped us with some vital saves and things went our way.

“I am glad for the players, the city and the crowd. This is a great achievement.”