Celtic lost again on their travels in the Champions League, this time 1-0 to Villarreal. For Bhoys supporters the statistics are depressing; just one point from 16 away games in the Champions League and next up is a visit to Manchester United.

Even boss Gordon Strachan admits that this defeat makes qualification for the Champions League last 16 a tall order.

"We've got a mountain to climb now, but I would say we've proved we can play at this level," said Strachan.

"And for the first time away from home I sat back and thought I was happy with what I was seeing."

The 1-0 defeat leaves Celtic three points adrift of Manchester United and Villarreal in Group E.

The Hoops chief was particularly disappointed with the free kick decision which led to the only goal from Marcos Senna.

"I've had a look at it and I'm not convinced it was free-kick," said Strachan.

"Only the player who was involved with it will know whether he dived or not, but the pictures themselves tell you.

"But in Marcos Senna they have a world-class player, simple as that, and once they went 1-0 up they showed what a really good team they are."

Strachan tried to take positives from the performance.

"Tonight we worried them when we had the ball, whereas in the past we didn't really look threatening away from home."

"I asked the players to perform and I don't think anyone would disagree that for 55 minutes we were excellent and reasonably comfortable at the back.

"After that, whether by design or coincidence, they started to work our areas of the pitch.

"But that performance is alright, that's good enough to win games in most places in the Champions League.

"It's just unfortunate we came up against one of the best teams in Europe at the present moment."