Celtic midfielder Stuart Armstrong said the Hoops had been left “feeling hard done by” after a late goal condemned them to a 1-0 defeat to Inter Milan and ended their Europa League campaign.
The Hoops played more than half the match with 10 men after the 36th-minute dismissal of Virgil van Dijk, but held out until the 88th minute before a fine strike from Fredy Guarin settled the tie 4-3 on aggregate.
“Disappointing is the word,” Armstrong said on BT Sport 1. “We put a lot into the game but unfortunately we got nothing out of it.”
Celtic were unhappy with Van Dijk’s red card, and were still arguing with the referee after the final whistle.
“I think we all saw it as a bit harsh,” Armstrong said. “The two yellow cards are not merited but it was what it was and it was an uphill battle from there. We just had to get on with it.
“We still created chances and probably should have tucked one away but of course the sending-off changed the game and we were on the back foot from there.
Van Dijk’s red card was not the only decision to go against the Hoops on the night, with Armstrong tumbling under a challenge from Davide Santon only for the referee to wave away their penalty appeals.
Asked if he was fouled, Armstrong said: “Of course. If there wasn’t (contact) I would have gone on and taken the shot. There’s no need to go down but I felt an arm on my shoulder and it put me off balance.
“It’s just the way it’s gone for us unfortunately. There’s a lot of disappointed boys in there feeling hard done by but it’s done now.”
Celtic manager Ronny Deila gave a scathing analysis of referee Ivan Kruzliak’s performance.
The Celtic boss described the sending off as “very cheap” and said of the Slovakian official: “He had a bad day at work, that’s for sure.
“If we had that bad a day we would have lost 6-0. There were things that happened in the game that ruined it for us.
“It was very even when 11 against 11. We defended well with 10 men but couldn’t create anything.
“I feel sorry for the team – but very proud of the boys. There was a very good chance to go through and I think we showed that we have something at this level.
“It was an open match until the sending-off. It made it very difficult for us, we had to work hard in defence.
“Hopefully, we could have kept it going and got a chance near the end but we didn’t make it.
“Inter are a good team so we have to get over it and start focusing on what is going to happen on Sunday.”
Deila was referring to the visit of second-placed Aberdeen in a match which will go some way to deciding the destination of the title.
The Parkhead club were fined 10,000 euros by UEFA on Wednesday for crowd disturbances in the game against Dinamo Zagreb in Croatia last year and they could be in trouble again after two flares were held up in the section housing around 3,000 Hoops fans.
Deila described it as “very disappointing” and said: “We have to get rid of this, this is is nothing to do with football.
“Again the fans were unbelievable, you can hear the fans still singing now, that is important for us but again we have to behave in the right way.”
Roberto Mancini admitted Vvan Dijk’s dismissal gave his side an advantage but insisted they had the game in hand.
The Inter boss said: “It made our life easier but we had the chances to score before that.
“We managed the game in the right way.”