Another game, and another defeat for Celtic in the Europa League.

Even though Celtic opened the scoring against Celta Vigo, Martin O’Neill’s side still found themselves on the losing team after another miserable display.

That’s three defeats in a row for Celtic in Europe, joint-bottom of the league phase, and now the champions of Scotland have to break records to secure a play-off spot – no team has ever secured qualification after losing their first three matches in this newly-formed European format.

But the manner in which Celta’s equaliser came about has annoyed O’Neill, as he felt it was a foul on Camilo Duran just seconds before, and how the officials told him that they were ‘checking’ a previous foul on the Colombian forward.

Three games and three defeats for Celtic in the Europa League after a 2-1 loss vs Celta Vigo. What is going wrong for the Hoops?

No side has ever qualified for the KO stages of the competition after losing their first three games in the league phase…

Martin O’Neill critical of referee after Celtic beaten by Celta Vigo in the Europa League

Speaking to TNT Sports straight after the match, O’Neill mentioned the away side’s goal on several occasions, including how it all came about.

The challenge on Duran, and then Liam Scales giving away the free-kick which led to the headed goal, all happened in the space of around ten seconds.

O’Neill was very animated on the touchline, to the point that he came out of his technical area, and he was booked by the on-field referee, Georgi Kabakov of Bulgaria.

And the Celtic manager called him out after the match, as he was clearly annoyed at what had just unfolded.

“We conceded a free-kick; I thought that second before that, we had a foul for us,” said O’Neill. “The referee has disowned that. Given them a foul like ten seconds later. And they score from the free-kick.

“That just knocked us a little bit at the time. There was still plenty of time to recover. It was one each in the game. That gave them a bit of momentum. They carried it through.

On what the officials told O’Neill about the non-free-kick: “Well, what did they say to me? First off, I thought there was a foul in the first half against Camilo. They said, ‘VAR were checking it.’ I don’t know what VAR were looking at because it was a very obvious foul.

“At the end of the day, I thought it was a foul against Camilo as well before they were given a free-kick. In the scheme of things, that seldom matters. I didn’t think it was one of his best games.

“We have lost three games, but remarkably we are still in with a chance. We have to win. We have to win here and win away from home.”

O’Neill’s substitutions and the timing of them…

The Celtic boss needs to take a lot of responsibility for this defeat because his substitutions were just baffling of the highest order.

Forget about who went off and who came on for a second; just before Celta equalised from a set-piece situation, you could tell that the team, the midfield and forward line were tiring.

Celtic were being pushed back further and further. Their equaliser came as a result of Scales just booting the ball forward for that supposed foul on Duran, and then the Irish defender himself committing the foul that led to their equaliser.

As soon as that equaliser went in, Celta were on top, before taking the lead, and that’s when O’Neill decided to change things up.

Even then, and somehow, Callum McGregor and Benjamin Nygren managed to stay on the field for the entire game; utterly baffling.

Stop blaming the officials. Question the players and the decision-making from the coaching staff, because you don’t lose three in a row in Europe because of officials.