Celtic goalkeeper Craig Gordon were unlucky to have Virgil van Dijk sent off in their 1-0 defeat to Inter, but showed their tactical nous to stay in the game even with 10 men.
The Bhoys saw van Dijk dismissed late in the first half after the Dutchman collected two yellow cards in the space of nine minutes.
“I think he [van Dijk] only made two fouls, and for the first one I think he got the ball,” Gordon told Forza Italian Football.
“I’m not sure the second one was even a foul, it might have been, it might not have been.
“I think he [van Dijk] will find himself very unfortunate. He hasn’t slid into any tackle, he stayed on his feet and he’s managed to pick up two yellows which is very unlucky.
“At the time in the heat of the battle it seemed like a lot a was going against us, but when we look back it might turn out he [the referee] got more right than we think.
The Scotland goalkeeper made a string of fine saves to keep Celtic in the tie before Fredy Guarin sealed the win with a thunderous 25-yard strike which flew into the top corner.
“It was a great strike, and sometimes you just have to hold your hands up as there isn’t a lot you can do about those ones.
“I tried to do my bit to make sure had a platform to go on to try and get something from the game.
“We were in it up until the 88th minute and if we just got that one chance, or a set piece to get the ball in the box to try and get the goal.
“Tactically we set out fairly similar to the first-leg, defensively it was a little different, but in terms of what we were trying to do going forward it was the same.
“I think if we kept 11 men on the pitch we would have seen a little more of that. But what we had talked about defensively did work and we managed to stay in the game for a long period of time.”
