Advertisement

Sport

"We didn't deserve to lose 4-1" - Lennon reacts to Prague mauling


Share this article


Pressure continues to mount on Celtic manager Neil Lennon following a heavy defeat in the UEFA Europa League. 

The Hoops went down 4-1 away to Sparta Prague and sit bottom of Group H, with hopes of qualification to the last-32 out the window.

Odsonne Edouard actually put Celtic in front with a quarter of an hour played in the Czech capital.

But goals from David Hanchko and Luka Julis had the hosts in front by half-time.

Julis added a third ten-minutes from time, before a breakaway goal in injury time from Srdjan Plavsic made it 4-1.

"I didn't think we deserved to lose the game 4-1," Lennon said afterwards.

"I thought we scored a great early goal.

"[I'm] really disappointed with the first and second goals. Obviously from a set-play again where we haven't dealt with the second ball, and I thought we could have dealt with the cross better.

"But a reaction, I thought after half-time - for 35-minutes - we were superb.

"I thought we deserved to get back into the game, and things aren't going for us a the minute. Trying to be positive and we got caught on the counter-attack for the third goal and.... we lost the game on that moment.

"Overall there was a lot of good things. Certainly a lot better than the performance two-weeks ago [4-1 defeat at home to Sparta], even though the scoreline turns out to be the same."

Tweeteing after the game, Lennon's former Celtic team-mate Chris Sutton said, "Hard for Neil Lennon to see this out after that."

Celtic are bottom of their Europa League group, and eleven-points adrift of Scottish Premiership leaders Rangers, albeit with two games in hand.

And Lennon believes he remains the right man to steer things back on track at Parkhead, "I don't think it's a major football issue, it's more psychological than anything else.

"I've been in situations like this before as a manager. I've been in situations like this as a player so there's no reason for me to believe that we won't turn it around.

"They're an excellent group. They're just lacking a little bit of unity at the minute. I don't know if it's because we living though a pandemic and it's not normal, there are things that are maybe out of their control a little bit.

"I think they're missing the atmosphere in the stadiums as well. We have to try and remedy that, adapt to that."

Should Celtic sack Neil Lennon? | I’m Angry


Share this article


Read more about

Celtic Europa League Lennon Neil Lennon Sparta Prague UEFA Europa League

You might like