KIERAN TIERNEY admitted there are no excuses for Celtic’s 2-0 loss against RB Leipzig last night.
The Hoops crashed to the Bundesliga outfit after two shocking moments of indecision in defence gifted the Germans a pair of goals in four first-half minutes.
Brendan Rodgers’ men now trail Leipzig by three points in Europa League Group B and followed their 3-1 defeat in Salzburg with another in the RB Arena.
Skipper-for-the-night Tierney didn’t even attempt to hide behind the fact the champions’ squad had been decimated by suspension, injuries and illness.
He said: “We had players missing, but there are no excuses. The team that was out there had quality in every position. It’s not that it was a second team although it wasn’t obviously full strength.
“The 10/15 minutes when we switched off really cost us. And, back in Glasgow, we’ll need to make less errors in the game.
“At this level, there are going to be mistakes. It’s just that they took their chances well.”
Tierney added: “Whether I’m captain or not, it’s frustrating for everybody. It’s something you want to get out of your game at this level. It’s something we’ll work on again.
“We can’t think about it too much right now as we’ve got a massive game on Sunday against Hearts. It’s hard because at this level you can’t drop your levels.
“When the first goal went in, it was disappointing because up until that point we had done well. Then we didn’t really play our way for four or five minutes and they punished us.
“At 1-0, it’s hard, but then it goes to two, it’s very difficult to get back into it. At half-time, we knew we would need to chase it. We didn’t do that great, but we coped well defensively.
“We changed the formation near the end and had a chance or two. We could have nicked a goal which would have made it interesting, but it was always going to be hard. They are a good team and you need to remember that.
”We know it’s going to be a tough game in a couple of weeks’ time. It’s another European night at Celtic Park and we know the crowd will be right behind us.
“I would like to thank every single one of them who came to Germany and made noise for 90 minutes no matter the score and how we were playing.”
