Mowbray won't blame heat for defeat
Posted Thursday, September 17, 2009 by PA
Celtic manager Tony Mowbray will not use the heat and humidity of Israel as an excuse for their late defeat to Hapoel Tel Aviv in their Europa League Group C opener in the Bloomfield stadium.
The Hoops looked to be cruising through the second half of the game after Georgios Samaras' 25th-minute strike had given them the interval lead.
However, with 15 minutes remaining, and the Parkhead side wilting, Hapoel playmaker Nemanja Vucicevic slammed in the equaliser.
There was further misery for Mowbray with two minutes remaining when Hapoel substitute Maaran Lala grabbed the late winner with the Celtic defence in disarray.
But Mowbray was reluctant to blame the stifling conditions for the disappointing start to their Europa League campaign.
He said: "It was disappointing to lose in the manner we did with the two late goals but once again I can't fault the players' effort.
"I thought they stuck to the game plan very well but we played against a decent side and you could see they were building up a moment at a draining time in the game.
"But there are no excuses, they played well and ultimately over the 90 minutes they probably deserved their victory.
"They weren't threatening us, they were pretty comfortable but we always knew that the longer the game went on, they had to change the game and they did that.
"The disappointment was the concentration levels in the last quarter of an hour weren't as high as they were.
"But we won't be using the conditions as an excuse and yet I was sweating watching the game, never mind running around for 90 minutes.
"It would have had a bearing but let's not take anything away from Hapoel's performance, they played very well in those conditions.
"The extra yard became more difficult to find the longer the game went on but my biggest frustration was that when we didn't play well with the ball when we had it."
Hapoel boss Eli Guttman claimed he had predicted victory at half-time despite his side being 1-0 down and apparently struggling.
He said: "I told my players at the interval that we would go on to win the game 2-1, never mind drawing 1-1.
"It was one moment when we lacked concentration that cost us the goal.
"Even with 20 minutes to go I was still confident, we were the better team and we were making chances.
"At half-time I told the players that we would start taking risks even if it went against us.
"We started to press and I had noticed in the first half that when we pressed, Celtic lost the ball. So we deserved to win."
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