Celtic still in with a shout despite loss.

Celtic still have Europa League qualification in their own hands despite last night’s 0-1 home defeat to Atletico Madrid.

Celtic know all they need to do is win away from home against Udinese to make it through to the last 32 of the Europa League despite last night’s 0-1 defeat at home to AtleticoMadrid.

That is an easy sentence to write but given Celtic’s away record inEuropealmost an impossible one for them to fulfil. Although they could be helped by Udinese’s quest for the Serie A title, which could see them put out a weakened team.

While this will seem a bit flippant it is indeed surprising to see Celtic in a position to qualify from this group at all. Particularly given the run of form they were on at the time, but they have galvanised themselves in recent weeks and are back in the SPL title race and in with a chance of progression in the Europa League.

For the opening half hour last night they at least looked to be a match for theMadridside, until they lost a soft opening goal. Despite what Neil Lennon said it looks to me as through Kayal ducked out the way of Ardan Turan’s shot.

From then on Celtic appeared to lose their confidence and swagger and allowed Atletico to sit back and defend comfortable, although a Ki free kick almost brought an equaliser but was only denied by a fine save from Courtois.

In the end Scottish football should be pleased Celtic have made it this far, and we should be right behind them and hopefully help push our co-efficent up!