Lennon not dwelling on defeat

Celtic manager Neil Lennon tried to focus on the positives following his team’s 2-0 defeat to Atletico Madrid in the Europa League.

The Scottish Premier League side, reinstated to European competition following Sion’s expulsion, were undone by goals from Atletico’s new signings Radamel Falcao and Diego.

Despite the loss, Lennon believes the scoreline was not an entirely fair reflection on his team’s performance at Estadio Vicente Calderon.

“I felt we could have played a little bit higher up the pitch in the first half,” Lennon said.

“We did that in the second half and for a good spell after half-time, we were unfortunate not to score I felt.”

“And the second goal is a killer goal as far as we are concerned.”

“We had to change it then and throw a bit of caution to the wind and you take a chance on that and you either lose the game 3-0 or have a chance at 2-1.”

Lennon was full of admiration for Atletico’s strength in depth.

Inaugural winners of the revamped competition in 2009-10, they suffered the departure of star strikers Diego Forlan and Sergio Aguero in the close season.

But the acquisition of Brazilian playmaker Diego and Colombia centre-forward Falcao, who won the competition with Porto last season, has Lennon thinking the team from the Spanish capital can challenge again in 2011-12.

“You know, they’ve lost players like Forlan and Aguero, but they’ve replaced those players with quality players like Falcao, who won it last season,” he said.

“They’ve certainly got the pedigree to win it.”

After drawing a blank in their first two rounds of the La Liga season, Atletico coach Gregorio Manzano was relieved his team registered two decisive efforts in the Group I opener.

“At least one thing we can say now that people will stop talking about us not scoring, that’s one good thing,” Manzano said.

“And I hasten to add, we actually scored ten goals in the qualifying stages, but this was, if you like, our first official goal in official competitions this season, so we’re happy to do that.”

“I don’t think we’ve changed anything in our approach to the game. The tactics that we’ve adopted before tonight, we played the same idea tonight.”

“The fact that the goal came from a corner is a move we planned for ourselves. It’s just good that we’ve broken that run.”