Scott Brown admitted he was ashamed of Celtic's performance after they failed to make the Champions League group stages for the second year running.
Last night's 2-0 defeat condemned the Parkhead outfit to Europa League football once more but it was the display in Malmo that particularly irked the Celtic captain.
“I’m ashamed of the performance from all over the park. From the way defended to the way we attacked it wasn’t like us at all," said Brown. “We’ve got to put our hands up. We have high expectations at this club and we need to try to deal with it.
“It’s a lot of pressure on us but we should have been a lot better than that today. The performance wasn’t there. We didn’t look we were going to score a goal and looked like we’d concede a few.”
Celtic exited last season twice, first at the hands of Legia Warsaw and then Maribor, after a reprieve, and Brown was frustrated by his side’s inability to reach the group stages.
“We can’t do that two years in a row. We've got to the final hurdle and we fell,” Brown added. “We need to learn, we said we’d learn from last year and we’ve not. We need to go away and have a big chat, learn from that and take everything on.
“The first leg we were unlucky with the corner at the end but we should have learned from that. It’s our own personal pride as well and it’s just been shattered.”
Celtic did score in the second leg through Nir Bitton but it was controversially ruled out by referee Milorad Mazic. Bitton though believed it was a perfectly legitimate goal.
“Yeah it should have stood but in football there are no excuses,” he said. “I think it was a clear goal but mistakes are part of football; sometimes the referee makes mistakes. We need to deal with that and look forward.”
Celtic winger James Forrest admitted that Malmo were deserved victors after their set-piece assault proved ultimately to be the difference between the sides.
“They’ve won over the two legs and they deserved to go through. I think last week… well, you can’t dwell on it. That’s it, we’re out. We need to move on," said Forrest.
Having already allowed a late Jo Inge Berget header in during the first leg, the SPFL champions would appear to have a problem from set-pieces at this level but, despite their apparent frailties, Forrest said Celtic actually believed they would be the stronger team in the air.
“We’re normally strong in the air. We thought attacking set-pieces was going to be our strong point as well. Then sometimes what happened is just the way it goes."
Malmö forward Vladimir Rodic said his team expected Celtic to be better than they proved over the course of the two legs.
Speaking in the post-match mixed zone, the attacker said he was surprised with the Scots' open tactics that offered the Swedes a slew of chances.
“Did we expect it to be more difficult? Obviously," he said. "We thought they would be a bit more defensive, we knew that playing in front of our fans we could do it, we had motivation, support, everything. We did a great job tonight.”
The Serb had little doubt over who deserved to prevail over the two legs. “Obviously they’re a good team, but… we showed we’re the better side. They had some quality but I think they weren’t better than us. That’s why we went through,” he said.
Rasmus Bengtsson added: “They did what they could, but I think we were better. We won the whole tie, so clearly the best team went through. It wasn’t easy. But to be honest, I thought we had control.
"They had a decent chance early on, but then we went and scored the goal, and we were the better team in the second half."
Bengtsson went on to say that he fancied Barcelona in the group stages, while the Scottish champions are left contemplating consolation prizes such as an all-British clash with Tottenham.
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