Two sent off as Celtic lose Champions League opener to Feyenoord

Celtic have lost their opening Champions League match 2-0 to Feyenoord in Rotterdam, in a match where the Scottish champions had two players sent off.

Celtic went behind just before half time when Calvin Stengs curled a powerful free-kick over the wall and beyond Joe Hart’s reach into the bottom corner.

After the restart, Gustaf Lagerbielke was dismissed for a second yellow card offence but Hart saved the resulting penalty.

Five minutes later, substitute Odin Thiago Holm was then sent off for a reckless tackle and Feyenoord made sure of three points with a second goal.

Alireza Jahanbakhsh, who had come off the bench, found space in the box to set himself and fire in a powerful shot that left nine-man Celtic with no way back into the game.

“I thought we had started the game really well,” Celtic captain Callum McGregor told TNT Sports. “The of course, they get the goal just before half time.

“That kind of undoes a lot of the good work that you did in the first half.

“Then obviously to get two men sent off in quick succession takes the game away from us.

“But I think the boys hung in there well. It could be easy to go to three or four or five from that point, which is testament to the group.

“There’s five games to go. Hopefully they’ll be walking off thinking we didn’t give up, we didn’t quit and there’s another game to get them back at Celtic Park.

“We have to take the lesson of having to play with 11 men at this level. It’s hard enough with 11 never mind when you go to nine.

“So we take the learning in that and we’ve got five games to try and get out of the group.

“The most important positives are how we started the game and how we didn’t give up at nine men, fighting for each other and trying to stay in the game.

“So it’s a disappointing night but we have five games to fix it.”

In the other Group E game Lazio goalkeeper Ivan Provedel scored an injury time equaliser in their 1-1 draw with Atletico Madrid.