Celtic 'deserved' to lose to Celta in Europa League, says Baur

Celtic midfielder Mika Baur claimed the team "deserved to lose" 2-1 to Celta Vigo in the Europa League.

Celtic are second from bottom of the league table after three games, having lost all of their matches so far, with only Ararat-Armenia FC sitting below them on goal difference.

Celta came from behind to snatch the win, scoring twice in the space of three second-half minutes after Baur had given Celtic a 47th-minute lead at Celtic Park when he swept home from a poor clearance.

Liam Scales then hit the crossbar with a header before Celta flipped the script, with Javi Rodriguez sending a bullet header past Sam Johnstone from a free-kick to level things up in the 68th minute.

And Rodriguez sealed the win three minutes later with a stunning effort from just outside the box that arrowed into the net, with Celtic failing to muster a response after that.

"How we played second half, last 30 minutes, we deserved it [the loss] in the end," Baur told TNT Sports.

When asked if he knew why his team collapsed in such a manner, he responded: "I cannot tell you, sorry.

"It can happen that you get a goal, they can score too, good team – you should then get control back, hold the ball a bit longer to take the momentum away from them. You should break that."

When asked if he feels Celtic can progress in the Europa League, he added: "What else should we do? Absolutely. We need points. That's it."

Celtic have now lost four European games in a row for the first time since October/December 2017 (also four consecutive defeats).

And even more worrying is the fact that they have kept just a single clean sheet across their last 16 matches in major European competition, a 1-0 victory at Stuttgart back in February (also in the Europa League).

Celtic had just two of their eight shots after going behind, while they struggled against Celta's attack throughout as the Spanish side finished with 22 attempts in total.

Martin O'Neill's side are now playing catch-up in the Europa League if they want to secure a play-off place, but he still has hope they can make it past the league phase.

"We conceded a free-kick, and I thought a second before that we should have had a foul for us," O'Neill told TNT Sports.

"They score from the free-kick, and it knocks us a little bit. It gave them a bit of momentum.

"I think if [Liam] Scales' header goes in to make it 2-0, we get the three points. We've lost three matches now; remarkably, we're still in with a chance [of progressing]. We've got to win here and got to win away from home.

"We take the lead in the game; if we get the second goal, we win the match, and it changes the whole dynamic.

"It didn't happen; that's it – we need to try to find a way to win European games."