Brown acknowledges red card ´mistake´

Celtic captain Scott Brown has acknowledged his mistake in being sent off against Barcelona on Tuesday.

The midfielder was shown a red card a minute before the hour mark in the UEFA Champions League tie after kicking Barcelona forward Neymar.

Cesc Fabregas got the winner 17 minutes after his dismissal to move the Spanish side top of Group H and Brown admitted that the red card left the Scottish champions with an uphill task.

“I realise that I made a mistake in getting sent off,” he said. “It’s something that happened in the heat of the moment but I shouldn’t have acted in this way,” he told Celtic’s official website.

“I still think it was a harsh decision. However, I recognise that I made a mistake and put myself and my team-mates in a difficult position. I need to live with that and there is no-one more disappointed than me about losing the match.

“There wasn’t a huge amount of contact at all, to be honest, but I have to accept responsibility for my actions – and I do.”

The defeat sees Celtic sit bottom of the group, having been beaten 2-0 by Milan in their European opener.

However, Brown felt that his team-mates deserved more from the game and remains confident that his side can qualify for the knockout stages.

“It was another fantastic performance from the lads after the Milan game, and although we’ve still to pick up a point from this group, we’ve shown we can compete against some of the best sides in Europe,” he continued.

“We have four games to go in this group and everyone in the squad firmly believes that we can still qualify, and we are determined to get our first points on the board against Ajax in two weeks’ time.

“The team deserved to get something out of the game after playing so brilliantly and putting in so much effort against one of the best sides in the world.”