Painful viewing: Lennon watched his team crash to defeat against Braga but says he can turn it around. Pic: © SNS Group
Neil Lennon has said his team can salvage their Champions League tie against Braga at Celtic Park. The manager suffered a disappointing debut in Europe when Celtic went down 3-0 to the Portuguese side but says that, with only half of the two-legged tie being played, his side are still in it.
Goals from Alan, Elderson and Matheus left Celtic with an uphill battle to qualify and the side will need to improve markedly on Wednesday night’s performance. However, Lennon pointed to home advantage as being one thing in Celtic’s favour and said it was too early to write them off.
"Some people may think the tie is over; we don't," the manager said after the final whistle.
"We've got a good record at home, we've been in this position before and we'll just have to go and be at our very best next week.
Reflecting on the game, which saw the Hoops fall behind in the first half to a penalty, before conceding late goals from a corner and free-kick, the Celtic boss said he felt that, although his side were second best, not much had gone in their favour.
"We lost the game to three set-pieces, which was very disappointing," he said.
"I thought we were comfortable in the game. At times, we could have passed the ball better. Some of our better ball players didn't take care of the ball as well as they should've done at times.
"Our goalkeeper had one save to make in the 92, 93 minutes. We set up to be defensive and try to not give too much away."
The manager was particularly disappointed by the decision for the first goal, when Ki Sung-Yueng was penalised for handball.
"His arms and his hands are down by his side; it's ball to hand,” Lennon insisted.
"[The referee] made some strange decisions. He booked Charlie Mulgrew after less than 10 minutes for time-wasting and that was just incredible. He didn't book any of the Braga players until maybe the final five minutes.
"So I'm not pleased with the referee's performance at all."
