Neil Lennon has risked sanction from Uefa after describing the performance of the referee, Alberto Undiano Mallenco, as "very pro-Juventus" after 3-0 first-leg defeat left Celtic needing "a miracle" to progress into the Champions League quarter-finals.

The manager's complaints centred on Juventus's cynical man-marking at corners. The Spanish official ignored home players' protests at virtually all of their 10 corners as markers grappled with Celtic players without punishment. Mallenco booked one of the more obvious offenders, Stephan Lichtsteiner, midway through the first half but also cautioned Gary Hooper over that clash. He later showed the substitute Simone Padoin a yellow card for a similar offence. Yet other incidents went ignored, to the fury of the home support.

"I thought he was poor," Lennon told Sky Sports. "I thought he was very pro-Juventus. I was disappointed with his performance to say the least." Uefa is likely to examine his comments and there remains a possibility he could be fined or banned from the touchline before the second leg in Turin in three weeks' time.

"It's not rugby we're playing, it's soccer," said the Celtic manager. "I pointed it out to the referee at half-time in the tunnel area but he just waved me away. I made it clear to the players to flag it up to the referee in the second half, but he ignored our requests. They were being fouled, manhandled. Every time one of my players tried to move he was held. He should have given a penalty on at least two occasions.


The victorious Juventus manager, Antonio Conte, declined to comment on the issue yet Lennon was just as frustrated that the additional assistant referees behind the goal had not alerted Mallenco to the incidents. "I'm not convinced they help the referee," he said. "In fact, I'm not sure why they are there at times. We played Juventus here in 2001 and the referee warned Paolo Montero, who was marking Chris Sutton, for the same offence. He persisted so the referee ended up giving a penalty. So what is the difference? That's what I want to know."

Defeat, compounded by the concession of late goals to Claudio Marchisio and Mirko Vucinic, has left Celtic forlorn. "We need a miracle," Lennon said. "We have to try to be competitive and try and work our way into the tie. At 1-0 we were fine and I told the players that at half-time. We were on the front foot for 70 or 80 minutes, the better side, and pressured Juventus and made them make mistakes. The tie was alive at 1-0 and if we'd equalised it would have a galvanising effect.

"But it wasn't to be and the second goal rather burst our bubble. I felt heads dropped when the second goal went in and we looked a bit ragged towards the end. That's the harsh reality of football at this level. We have to be competitive over there. We know it's always a daunting prospect going there and with a 3-0 deficit it does look insurmountable. If we can take the chances we created tonight, then who knows? But it's going to be a huge task."