Celtic: Neil Lennon seeks Uefa clarification on Juventus

 

Celtic manager Neil Lennon says the club will seek "clarification" from Uefa on the refereeing in the Champions League defeat by Juventus.

The visiting defenders appeared to grapple Celtic players at set-pieces, with Spanish referee Alberto Undiano Mallenco refusing to award a penalty.

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“We needed a strong referee and we didn't have that”

Neil Lennon Celtic manager

And Lennon said the Italians appeared to be fouling at every opportunity.

"We'll compile a DVD and send it off and just look for an explanation on some of the decisions," he said.

"You don't see our players doing that. There were pictures of the shirt coming off Gary Hooper's back, credit to him for keeping his cool.

"It's a myth that Juventus 'did their homework'. That's rubbish. Juventus defend like that week-in, week-out in Serie A.

"If anything we had done our homework and we made sure the referee was aware of it and he was looking at it time and again and Juventus went unpunished.

"We needed a strong referee and we didn't have that.

"As I said after the game, 10 or 11 years ago we got a penalty against Juventus in the exact same circumstances, the player was warned about grappling with Chris Sutton, the corner comes in he did again and the referee gave a penalty.

"Have the rules changed since then?"

Meanwhile, Lennon revealed he has spoken to Kris Commons after the forward commented on Efe Ambrose's performance in the 3-0 loss to Juve.

Ambrose, who had played for Nigeria in Sunday's African Cup of Nations on Sunday, was at fault for two of the Italian side's goals and missed a headed chance when Celtic trailed 1-0.

"That's heat of the moment stuff," added Lennon. "It's been dealt with internally and there's no bad feeling from anyone on that.

"Kris really cares, he was really disappointed but he did overstep the line a little bit.

"We don't blame individual performances, we're a team. That's the end of it as far as I'm concerned."