Brendan Rodgers felt Celtic’s discipline cost them as they suffered defeat against Feyenoord in their Champions League group stage opener.
The Scottish champions lost 2-0 in the Netherlands with Calvin Stengs and Alireza Jahanbakhsh grabbing the goals for their Dutch opponents.
Celtic competed well in the first half, but they shot themselves in the foot in the second with Gustaf Lagerbielke and Odin Thiago Holm both landing red cards in two separate instances.
Rodgers had no complaints over the decisions and he feels inexperience in his squad was to blame.
He explained: The first one you just have to shepherd it through to the goalkeeper.
“You don’t have to get into the fight. It is going to go through to Joe Hart anyway. It is just inexperience from Gustaf.
“Odin is a fantastic young player and he will learn from that. He is very committed. At any level, but in particular European football, you can’t go to ground like that.
“You make it easy for the referee. I am really disappointed with the two sending-offs.
“When you go down to nine men it becomes very difficult, but what I will say is the spirit of the players was brilliant.”
Rodgers is still confident that Celtic can be competitive in Group E, despite the defeat on matchday one.
He added: “We kept fighting, we kept working. We get to the last game of the group and play Feyenoord at home then we will be in with a fantastic chance.
“I feel for the players. The first 60 minutes was a very even game. We were playing against a team that have been doing very well.
“We more than matched them. We were disappointed with the first goal, we made a decision in game to adjust the wall at the free-kick and it cost us.
“We have to take that. I don’t mind players making decisions in game if it can work. Other than that we were well in the game.”
