Agony for Celtic after Juventus 3-0 thrashing

Celtic’s  UEFA Champions League dreams are hanging by a thread after going down 3-0 in the first leg of their last 16 tie with Juventus last night.

Efe Ambrose was at fault for Juventus’ opener, allowing Alessando Matri to go clear on goal to score after just three minutes.

Ambrose gifted Alessandro Matri an early goal, missed Celtic’s best chance of the night and lost the ball to allow Mirko Vucinicto score a late third goal.

Celtic midfielder Kris Commons has spoken of his frustrations, telling several national newspapers:”Look, the manager picked him. The manager pulled him to one side and asked him if he was feeling okay. He said he was feeling brilliant.

“If he wasn’t feeling okay then he should have said so.

“If he felt good then he should have put in a better performance.”

Commons added: “It was just very sloppy individual mistakes – something you’d probably get away with on a playground, not in the last 16 of the Champions League.

“There are certain individuals who let the team down.

“Hopefully this is just a one-off. The back four have made errors which have probably cost us the tie. But it’s partly down to them why we’re here in the first place.

“It’s just a bitter one to swallow.”

Celtic boss Neil Lennon blasted Juventus’ tactics when defending corners, feeling the referee should have punished their players for grappling and holding inside the penalty area.

“I was usually the man taking the corners but there was a lot of argy-bargy,” noted Commons.

“But we watched plenty of the videos that they seem to play within the rules of the game unless the officials deem fit to give us a penalty.

“There was a lot of holding, a lot of grabbing, a lot pushing, but that’s professional football at the top level. There’s enough officials nowadays behind the goal, in and around the goal, on the touchline that need to be aware of what sort of tactics they are employing on our players.”

Commons is refusing to concede defeat in the tie despite the uphill task facing them in Turin, admitting they must cut out all individual mistakes if they are to have any chance of pulling off an unlikely comeback.

“We need to eradicate the sort of silly errors that individuals made to have any sort of chance in Turin, but you never know get and early and we will see,” he said.

“We have got a glimmer [of a chance], but it is going to be a massive, massive challenge. They are no pushovers and they will be thinking the tie is over so that might give us a little bit of an edge.”