Mowbray: Arsenal were the better side in the end

Results

Date	Time	C	Opponent	F	A	R	S
26 Aug	7:45 PM	CL	Celtic (H)	3	1	Win

Celtic manager Tony Mowbray admitted that his team simply lost to a better side tonight and over the two legs, succumbing to a 5-1 aggregate defeat in the qualifying rounds of the Champions League.

The second leg was marred by one incident of alleged gamesmanship by Eduardo, but Mowbray says that the penalty aside, Arsenal deserved to go through to the group stages of Europe's premier football competition.

Already trailing by two away goals from the first leg, it was always going to be an uphill struggle for his team to get back into the tie. Mowbray said: "The first goal was always going to be crucial. If we had got it, you would have had a more interesting spectacle. The fact that Arsenal scored it allows their real high quality players to relax a bit more and play at their own pace.

"When you try and play high up against such quality players, you are asking for trouble. That is the way it panned out - but I could not question the desire and effort of my team.

"I would suggest there are only four teams in the English Premier League of the quality of Arsenal. I do not think the gulf between our football club and the rest of the Premier League would be there - maybe we will get the chance to show that in the Europa League.

"I genuinely believe Arsenal are a team who can win this competition, but at the moment Celtic are not in a position to compete with the English sides who make the semi-finals of this tournament year in and year out."

And Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger is now hoping that his team will get the recognition that they deserve in Europe. The Frenchman feels that despite his young team beating some of Europe's finest and reaching the semi-finals of the competition last season, their feats are somewhat overlooked due to the success of English clubs in general.

Wenger explained: "We were not given any credit at all for reaching the semi-finals last season. It was for two reasons. First of all it looks like at least one or two English clubs always reach the semi-finals so it doesn't seem like a major achievement anymore.

"Secondly, we lost in a non-convincing way against Manchester United and that took credit away from us. For me we knocked out good teams. But it's like that. You have to accept it.

"We are now in the top, top league in Europe, with all the big names. Our team here was an average age of 23.9 years. That means if we can get out of the group stage, then in six months we can be even stronger.

"That is what we want to focus on, to continue to improve our team play, the speed of our game and show that we have made big improvements."

The draw for the group stages of the Champions League is on 27 August at 1700 BST.

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