Celtic forward Daizen Maeda faces six weeks out after suffering a knee injury in the challenge that earned him a red card against Atletico Madrid.

Maeda was initially booked following a 50-50 with Mario Hermoso but the yellow card was upgraded to a red following a VAR review.

The Japan attacker had left a leg dangling and Hermoso went down in dramatic fashion after catching Maeda’s studs as he followed through.

Manager Brendan Rodgers said: “Daizen will probably be up to six weeks out with the injury from the challenge. He has strained his medial knee ligament which comes from when you just knock a player on the foot.

“If he was in stronger in the challenge he probably wouldn’t have had the injury. The clash of feet has just opened up the knee ligament.

“It’s a big shame for us because he has been brilliant for me since I came here.

“It’s a big loss because his attitude and mentality going into every game is superb. He initiates the pressure for us at the top end.

“It’s a real shame because he has been like a machine since he came to Celtic, watching him before I arrived and then coming here and seeing what he does every day and in the games, he is incredible. He hasn’t had too many knocks.

“But I always say, it’s an opportunity for someone else to come in and play.”

The injury blow compounded Rodgers’ frustration with the decision to send Maeda off in the 6-0 Champions League defeat.

“You only have to assess the incident. Everyone could see if you know football at all that there was no intention, he was just overstretching and both players clash feet,” he said.

“The irony is that as soon as the red card went up, their player miraculously got up off the floor.”

Liam Scales admits Celtic need to be more streetwise in Europe.

Brendan Rodgers’ side have been very competitive with a full quota of players in the Champions League but three red cards in four games have proved costly.

Daizen Maeda’s dismissal in Spain on Tuesday led to a 6-0 defeat by Atletico Madrid, which leaves Celtic bottom of Group E with one point and in need of wins over Lazio and Feyenoord and favours from Diego Simeone’s team.

Centre-back Scales, who has not been booked in the Champions League, said of the red cards: “It’s probably that we are a young team and maybe a bit naive at times.

“You come and play in Europe and the referees, you get nothing out of them. They are a lot stricter and tackles that you might get away with domestically, they give.

“With VAR, you are going to pick up red cards in the way we’ve been doing.

“It’s frustrating, because I think with 11 players on the pitch we had started the game quite well.

“I know we had conceded earlier before the red card, but I thought we had quite a bit of the ball, and it definitely would have been a more even game with 11 men.”

Scales also believes they need to learn from the animated reaction of the Atletico bench when Maeda made his tackle and was initially booked, before VAR intervened.

Scales said: “To be honest, you see the way they react and all of their staff are up off the bench. It definitely doesn’t help.

“The VAR screen is right beside their bench as well, and he (the referee) was probably feeling the pressure.

“They are definitely more street-smart than us, that’s for sure, the way they influence the referee.

“It’s not the nicest part of the game, but it helps them win games and we could definitely learn from it.”

The manner of defeat has led to some soul-searching among the Celtic support about their level in European football but Scales pointed out they had drawn with Atletico two weeks earlier.

“I think we’re at the level, it’s just naivety and poor decisions at times have let us down,” the Republic of Ireland international said.

“Some of the goals, we could have defended better, we need to look back on that and see what we could have done better defensively.

“But it’s still difficult with 10 men away from home to get results at any level, and especially there.”

Celtic now travel to Rome needing a win on November 28.

“There’s a few games left in the group and now it’s just about bouncing back and doing as well as we can, because the Lazio game was so tight and it could have gone either way, and we feel that we can go there and get a result,” Scales said.

“It’s the same with Feyenoord at home. We were doing well in Feyenoord up until the couple of red cards, and the same happened here.

“I think we just have to bounce back, that’s it.”

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers likened modern football to a “computer game” after claiming Daizen Maeda was sent off following a needless VAR intervention in his side’s 6-0 defeat by Atletico Madrid.

Maeda saw a yellow card upgraded to red following a VAR review midway through the first half at the Estadio Metropolitano, but Rodgers felt referee made the right call initially.

The Japanese attacker dangled a leg in a 50-50 challenge with Mario Hermoso, who hurt himself as he followed through.

Celtic were already trailing to a deflected strike from Antoine Griezmann and Atletico took full advantage of the numerical superiority. Griezmann and Alvaro Morata both struck doubles, while Samuel Lino and Saul Niguez also scored as Atletico hit a string of spectacular second-half goals.

Rodgers said: “I think the red card is a big turning point. We started well, started with confidence, got into some really good areas. We then get a man sent off early, which was a huge disappointment because I didn’t feel it was a red card.

“When you watch the re-run, both players kick each other’s feet. The referee saw that in game time and then he is asked to look at it.

“The first image he sees is not representative of the actual challenge. You plant a seed when the first image he sees is Daizen Maeda’s foot up, but that wasn’t the challenge and it’s a really, really soft red card.

“For a team coming here with 11 against 11, you would need to be at your real max to get something out the game and losing a man early, it becomes a real challenge and we tire and they scored some fantastic goals.”

Rodgers was angered by the reaction of the Atletico bench after the Maeda challenge, with boss Diego Simeone and six or seven colleagues racing into the technical area to remonstrate.

He said: “They will play the game, they are obviously trying to get our player sent off.

“Listen, it’s still up to the ref. You come away in Europe and a place like this where it’s an emotional stadium, everyone will add pressure.

“The ref saw it in game time and didn’t deem it worthy of anything so serious, but it just feels like a computer game now, football. So many visits to the screen, so many influences in the game.

“As time has gone on you see the influence of VAR and the difficulties referees have. There’s a lot of judgements going on away from the field.

“It’s not so much the technology, but how it is implemented. It’s not something I enjoy.

“When it first came out I was very much wanting to support it and hoped it would improve the game, because I think everyone thought the utopia of VAR would mean we would lose all these bad decisions.

“But you could argue there’s even more now. There’s a good percentage where it just doesn’t feel right in the game.”

Rodgers maintained a 4-3-2 formation after the red card, with Oh Hyeon-gyu coming on at half-time.

“You have seen my teams enough back home,” he said. “Whenever we lose a man it’s having that structure.

“Listen, you can have any structure you want, it can be very, very difficult against that level of opponent. It just didn’t work for us so we have to take our medicine.”

Celtic remain bottom of Group E but are still not eliminated from the Champions League, although they will need to beat both Lazio and Feyenoord and hope Atletico do them some favours to stay in Europe beyond Christmas.

Rodgers said: “We knew we had to take something from this game, but with Lazio winning as well, our objective with two games to go is to get points and see if we can improve on last season’s points total.”

Brendan Rodgers hailed Celtic’s traditional never-say-die spirit following their late 2-1 cinch Premiership win over St Mirren at Parkhead.

Saints attacker Conor McMenamin headed the visitors in front in the seventh minute but returning Hoops midfielder David Turnbull levelled in the 18th minute with a fine strike before hitting the post with a penalty just before the half-hour mark.

The league leaders kept chipping away in the second half and eventually got their reward in the 83rd minute when South Korean attacker Oh Hyeon-gyu took a pass from fellow substitute Odin Thiago Holm and fired high past excellent Buddies goalkeeper Zach Hemming.

The Celtic boss smiled as he said: “It was coming.”

He added: “Listen, it’s one of those ones – you know the game lasts 90 plus minutes so you trust your team.

“They’ve scored late goals already this season. It’s the make-up of this club to keep going and persevere.

“I was really just pleased with the quality of the winning goal. We saw that at Motherwell when we got that winner (Matt O’Riley) late on.

“With 80-odd minutes on the clock here, you can start to panic but we worked the ball really well.

“The goal was terrific. Of course you can never be sure but I trust the team that they will keep going until the end and when you do that opportunities will come.

“It’s part of the value of this team – that ability to keep going. When you bring in players you are always looking for players who have that resilience in their make-up.

“It’s part of what you do when you recruit a player. When you play for a club like this one, there’s no choice – you keep fighting, you keep running and allow your quality to come through and that’s exactly what happened.

“We had a penalty and Kyogo (Furuhashi) had a chance as well. So we could have been more comfortable in the scoreline.

“At 2-1, you just want to grind it out and get the result.”

It was Oh’s first goal of the season and Rodgers was pleased for the South Korean.

Rodgers said: “It was a great finish. Nice little very combination with Kyogo and Odin can shoot if he’s selfish. But he plays a lovely pass in and the big guy takes his touch and it’s a wonderful finish.

“I’m really pleased for him. For the guys who aren’t playing so much, you always have to recognise and acknowledge their efforts which I did with them.

“He looks after his body, his diet, everything is superb. He’s so professional, he looks at his training and he knows when asked upon he can come in and make an impact. And what an impact.”

St Mirren remain in third place and boss Stephen Robinson also praised his side as he acknowledged the quality of Celtic’s goals.

He said: “We got beat by a fantastic goal. Sometime you look for fault but it was a fantastic goal and so was the first one.

“Defensively we were excellent, Zach Hemming made three fantastic saves.

“I have nothing but credit and praise for the players.

“To be disappointed shows we have come a long way but we are a good side and I have a lot of confidence in these players.

“We got beat by quality but in terms of where we want to go it was a big statement in terms of performance.”

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers hailed his side’s “terrific performance” after a 2-2 Champions League draw with Atletico Madrid.

Celtic twice took the lead in the first half through Kyogo Furuhashi and Luis Palma, who netted shortly after Antoine Griezmann had netted the rebound from his own penalty.

Celtic played with pace, purpose and confidence in the first half and both goals came after excellent moves, but they could not keep up the tempo after the break and Alvaro Morata levelled eight minutes into the second half.

Rodgers said: “I thought it was a terrific performance, especially the first 45 minutes – the quality of our football, the speed in our pressing and in our game, everything we would want.

“We were unfortunate with the penalty. One, it was very harsh, and, two, they got the good fortune after the save hits the post and comes straight to the player.

“But our reaction was superb, everything I wanted in terms of playing together, pressing and the intensity and a really aggressive mentality and then having the courage to play.

“We expected them second half to have a spell in the game but they didn’t create so much. Their equaliser was fantastic, the early cross and great finish.

“But we kept fighting and showed we can compete with a top-level team.

“It will give us confidence to know we can create opportunities and play the football we want to play. The team pressed the game well and passed it for a lot of the game.”

Rodgers, who revealed Reo Hatate had suffered a hamstring injury, which forced him off for Paulo Bernardo inside seven minutes, admitted it was difficult to maintain the intensity for 90 minutes.

Celtic never looked like taking the lead for a third time, despite Atletico going down to 10 men in the 82nd minute.

He added: “There’s a wee bit of tiredness that comes in the last 20 minutes because we are not used to playing at that tempo and against that level of opponent, so naturally a wee bit of fatigue kicks in. We also had to make an early sub with Reo’s injury.

“It was a really big performance but we couldn’t quite get the result we were looking for.”

Celtic are bottom of the group with one point from three games ahead of trips to Madrid and Lazio, the latter of whom have four points.

Rodgers said: “We wanted to get three points but if you can’t get the win then don’t lose it, and I don’t think we looked like losing. I can see development for sure.

“We have shown we can perform and we go into the other three trying to get as many points as we can and see where it takes us.”

Atletico manager Diego Simeone admitted his side had struggled to deal with Celtic in the first half.

“As expected, they started really well, as they did in their first two games,” he said.

“We really struggled to contain them early on and they scored with their first attack. We managed to respond but they quickly scored a fantastic goal.

“The first half didn’t go as we would have liked but I was really pleased with the second half, it was a real Champions League performance. We showed a lot of personality and responsibility.”

Simeone, who brought on Marcos Llorente and Rodrigo Riquelme at half-time, added: “In the first half we didn’t have the speed the game required, we weren’t up to scratch and they combined well in our half.

“But the subs had a big impact and we had better solutions in our passing game.”

Celtic twice lost a lead as they gained their first Champions League point in a 2-2 home draw with 10-man Atletico Madrid.

Kyogo Furuhashi got Celtic off to a flying start with his second goal in two Champions League games and Luis Palma quickly restored Celtic’s lead after Antoine Griezmann scored following his own saved penalty.

Celtic were deservedly on course for a first Champions League group-stage home win in 10 years following a first-half display full of pace and purpose but they started slowly after the break and Alvaro Morata levelled inside eight minutes of the restart.

The Scottish champions never rediscovered their spark – even after Atletico went down to 10 men in the 82nd minute – and their run without a home win at this level is now at 12 games.

Feyenoord’s win over Lazio left Celtic three points adrift of the Italians at the bottom of Group E, halfway through the campaign with trips to Spain and Rome to follow.

The build-up to the game had been dominated by internal and external strife.

Thousands of Celtic fans defied the club before kick-off by displaying Palestine flags, an act which will inevitably lead to UEFA sanctions.

Atletico’s decision to dispense with their striped shirts and wear an all-red top based on the one worn by the team that beat Celtic in the 1974 European Cup semi-finals also opened old wounds.

Two of the team that gained a goalless first-leg draw at Parkhead had travelled with the current side but the tribute did not go down well among the Celtic support given Atletico had three men sent off and seven others booked in that brutal encounter.

Furuhashi ignited the highly-charged atmosphere inside four minutes following a one-touch move. The Japan international twice exchanged passes with Matt O’Riley before taking a touch and slotting home from six yards.

There was a blow for Brendan Rodgers moments later when Reo Hatate went off injured. The Celtic manager brought on 21-year-old midfielder Paulo Bernardo, who is yet to start a game since his loan move from Benfica.

The home side remained positive, roared on by the crowd as they pressed Atletico high up the park, but the visitors levelled in the 25th minute after Greg Taylor was penalised for a trip on Nahuel Molina.

Joe Hart saved Griezmann’s penalty at full stretch but the France international dispatched the rebound.

Taylor atoned three minutes later when he played a searching ball beyond right-back Molina which sent Daizen Maeda in behind. The resulting cross found fellow winger Palma and the Honduran took a touch and rifled a shot in off the post.

Palma had been denied a late goal against Lazio three weeks ago by a marginal VAR ruling and an offside decision soon went Celtic’s way after Axel Witsel headed home from a set-piece.

O’Riley had earlier threatened with a first-time strike which was met with a diving save as Celtic continued to attack with verve.

Diego Simeone made two half-time changes and substitute Marcos Llorente vindicated his introduction within eight minutes as he crossed for Morata to equalise with a diving header.

Morata and Llorente both threatened and Rodgers responded by bringing on centre-back Nat Phillips for Palma and changing formation.

Atletico continued to boss possession and Celtic were contributing to their difficulties with some slack passing. Hart saved well from Morata after the Spain international turned Cameron Carter-Vickers.

Celtic got a lifeline when Argentinian midfielder Rodrigo de Paul received a second yellow card following a sliding tackle on Bernardo.

Substitute James Forrest shot not far over but Celtic could not seriously trouble the 10 men.

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers hailed his players for meeting their Tynecastle challenge with some “wonderful football” in a 4-1 win over Hearts.

The cinch Premiership leaders restored their seven-point lead with a largely dominant display in front of 576 of their own fans in a reduced allocation and more than 17,000 Hearts supporters.

Matt O’Riley volleyed his sixth goal of the season inside four minutes and Celtic remained in control. Daizen Maeda and Kyogo Furuhashi netted before the 51st minute and Reo Hatate hit the post with a penalty.

Lawrence Shankland pulled one back in the 64th minute but substitute Tomoki Iwata fired his first goal for Celtic to kill off any slim hopes of a comeback.

Rodgers said: “It was important that we started the game well, and try to bring an energy and speed to the game which would make it difficult for Hearts, because I have been here enough times to know that if you don’t make a good start here it can be a challenge.

“But the players played some wonderful football and worked ever so hard.”

Celtic have now won six consecutive league matches and appear to be finding more fluidity in their play.

Rodgers said: “It’s a constant evolution, there’s not a destination to where we want to go, it’s just continual improvement and finding levels and the big thing is consistency.

“It’s obviously a very difficult ground to come to but I love challenges like this, coming to really hostile environments because it’s an opportunity for you to show your value as a team, dealing with difficult circumstances, and the players dealt with it ever so well.

“The only criticism is we could have scored more goals and managed the ball a bit better after we scored the fourth goal, so we didn’t have to run so much.

“But overall, after an international break, where a lot of these guys were a wee bit heavy-legged towards the end, a lot of travel, what they gave the game was absolutely brilliant.”

Hearts manager Steven Naismith bemoaned his side’s start and the way they allowed Celtic chances.

Naismith started with a positive line-up with Kenneth Vargas told to run beyond Shankland and Alan Forrest and Alex Lowry supporting the front players. But their chances when undermined when O’Riley ran away from marker Calem Nieuwenhof and volleyed home Luis Palma’s lofted pass.

“We gave up really sloppy goals,” said Naismith, whose team let slip a two-goal lead against Hibernian in their previous match.

“That’s the last two games that the goals we conceded are not at the level where we should be at and want to be at. How sloppy they were and when we concede them is mental.

“It doesn’t give you a chance to get into the game when you lose a goal after three minutes. And that was the theme throughout the game, the goals are avoidable.

“Our intensity when we are pressing and closing down wasn’t good enough and in the game there are split-seconds when players are making decisions and ultimately they are going to decide if it’s a good action or bad action. Every goal we picked the wrong action.”

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has called for a minimum percentage of away supporters to be enshrined in league rules as he prepares to take his team to what will be an even more hostile atmosphere inside Tynecastle.

Celtic will have 576 fans in attendance for Sunday’s game against Hearts with the home club keen to get more of their own supporters inside the ground following rising demand for tickets in recent years.

The allocation is less than half of what Celtic received in their previous visit and a continuation of a trend.

Rodgers was used to seeing the Roseburn Stand half full of Celtic supporters in his first spell in charge, which included his first domestic game as manager and the game where his side clinched his first title. But previously Celtic fans occupied the whole of the stand behind the goal.

The likes of Aberdeen, Hearts and Hibernian previously took bigger supports to Glasgow too but they have long been restricted to less than two per cent of Celtic Park and Ibrox in allocations measured in hundreds.

The Tynecastle allocation has continued debate over away allocations which has been most starkly felt when Celtic face Rangers in recent seasons.

The tradition of handing about 7,500 tickets to the away team was abandoned by Rangers and fears over the safety of an away following in the hundreds have meant the fixture has been home fans only in recent matches.

The likes of Aberdeen, St Mirren and Kilmarnock have also cut the allocations for Celtic and Rangers fans in recent seasons.

The issue will likely be revisited ahead of Celtic’s New Year derby with Rangers likely to be rebuffed in their request for tickets after the Hoops won at Ibrox earlier this season with no fans present.

Scottish Professional Football League rules are currently vague, stating that a home club must provide tickets for a “reasonable number of visiting supporters…. as may be agreed in advance with the visiting club”. The SPFL board will determine the number if no agreement is reached but that situation has never occurred.

Rodgers accepted Hearts’ right to cut the allocation but he hopes the rules can be made clearer for everyone’s benefit, echoing similar calls from his Hearts counterpart Steven Naismith.

“Every club has got every right at this moment in time, to issue what they want to give to away supporters,” the Celtic manager said.

“Until there is something standardised, Hearts are more than willing to do that.

“Of course as a Celtic manager I love to see more supporters in there of course because they come from all over the place to follow their team.

“But hopefully we can standardise a certain percentage for away supporters and that allows all the supporters of all the teams to be able to go and watch their teams.

“Around some of the grounds, in my first time here and even now…the idea is, of course, if there is more away allocation it allows the ground to be filled, and obviously to give money and resources to the away team, then of course we would like to be able to do that.

“But I also understand it from a football perspective why maybe you wouldn’t want so many away supporters in.

“But hopefully the federation can standardise a number and then we all know where we stand.”

Rodgers backed his team to handle the atmosphere.

“Any team playing away, it’s always nice to have a fairly large group of your supporters there to give you that backing but if they are not there, then we can’t use that as an excuse,” he said.

“We have shown already with no supporters that we can get big results. We will be very much together and the 500-odd supporters that will be there, hopefully we can give them a good day.”

Brendan Rodgers believes Luis Palma is gradually becoming more accustomed to the demands of playing for Celtic.

The Honduran scored his team’s second goal in the 3-1 win over Kilmarnock in what was his first Premiership start since arriving from Aris Thessaloniki in August.

Rodgers felt it was unrealistic to expect new signings to be “perfect right away” and revealed he was looking only for incremental improvement.

The Celtic manager said: “The players at the top end of the pitch have to create and score goals, that’s their contribution.

“But Luis is settling in very well. These guys are coming from different climates and cultures.

“People feel the need for them to be perfect right away. I don’t, it’s all about adaptability.

“If they feed into the club’s winning mentality, they’ll improve here.

“You see with Palma, he’s getting better game by game. He was excellent today and scored a very good goal.

“He was dangerous. He played his part in a very good collective performance.”

Kilmarnock got a goal back through David Watson with the score at 2-0, but Rodgers believed a foul should have been awarded in the build-up.

He added: “We had the ball on the edge of the box, Greg Taylor was manhandled by their guy to the ground and we didn’t get a foul.

“The VAR only started when the play went forward. They scored from the position Greg would have been in.

“I don’t like talking about referees, but we’ve now got a whole team of people looking at it. The ref doesn’t see it, he had his back to the play. By the time he turned around, the foul was committed.

“But a guy on the line can see it, like me. On top of that, there’s a VAR team watching it with a cup of tea and no drama. They still didn’t see it.”

Celtic had a penalty award overturned by the VAR following a coming-together between Reo Hatate and Watson.

Kilmarnock manager Derek McInnes – who would not address speculation linking him with the Rangers managerial vacancy – felt the Japanese midfielder had embellished any contact.

He said: “My first thought was that Hatate has gone down far too easily. For me, he’s waiting for contact. But I don’t think there was any contact. If I’m wrong then I’ll apologise.

“But for me, it’s trying to buy a penalty and the referee has bought it as I thought he would. I thought, ‘he’s going to give a penalty here’ and he did.

“My heart sank and then VAR overturned it. But that’s far too easy to go down, far too easy from Hatate. That’s poor.”

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers praised his players’ resolve in their 3-1 win over Kilmarnock.

Goals from Reo Hatate, Luis Palma and Greg Taylor sent the champions seven points clear at the top of the cinch Premiership and made David Watson’s strike – that made it 2-1 – no more than a consolation.

Rodgers admitted there had been a period of “grieving” following the midweek Champions League defeat to Lazio but credited the squad for not letting it affect them upon their return to league duty.

He said: “I’m really pleased with the performance today off the back of the game during the week.

“We could all touch the pain of that result because our display didn’t merit it.

“But it’s about how you respond. You grieve for 24 hours, I sensed it from everyone, the players and the supporters. But you need to show strength of mentality to get back to winning again.

“We showed that today because we switched back to perform well today. The players deserve credit for that.”

Hatate’s goal crowned an excellent individual performance and Rodgers revealed he had sat down with the Japan international earlier in the week to speak about his intensity levels.

He added: “This was the first game that Reo has come alive for me. He has to press the game and when he is at that level, then he is intense with the ball. He scored a brilliant goal and he was superb.

“I went through things with him the other day. If he wants to get to the highest level, there needs to be more intensity in his game. I took him through clips of his game, all without the ball.

“If you press the game well you will pass it well. But he took it on board, was very open and produced a fantastic performance today. That’s the level, you can’t switch the engine on and off.”

Kilmarnock manager Derek McInnes felt that Celtic’s second goal, scored by Palma via a ricochet off Hatate, should have been ruled out.

He said: “Having seen the pictures for me it looks offside in the build-up when it bounces back off the Celtic player. So I’m disappointed with that as offside should be clear.

“When I saw it on the big screen I thought he was offside and when VAR were checking it I was expecting it to be chopped off.

“There might be better pictures in the VAR hub so any criticism of that at the minute is a wee bit contained as I’m just viewing it on the pictures that I’ve seen.

“I showed the referee the pictures that I’d seen. But they’re obviously dependent on the people in VAR looking at different angles.

“I saw an angle on my analyst’s laptop. Whether he’s a computer genius and has played around with the lines I don’t know. But it looked offside.”

Celtic bounced back from their Champions League disappointment by defeating Kilmarnock 3-1 at home in the cinch Premiership.

Brendan Rodgers’ men looked eager to atone for their midweek loss to Lazio and were two goals ahead at half-time through Reo Hatate and Luis Palma.

David Watson got one back for Kilmarnock midway through the second period before Greg Taylor added a third to send Celtic seven points clear at the top of the table after a fifth consecutive league win.

Rodgers made two changes from the Lazio match. In came Cameron-Carter Vickers and Palma, with Nathaniel Phillips and Hyun-jun Yang starting on the bench.

Kilmarnock also made two changes from their draw with St Mirren. There were starting places for Robbie Deas and Watson who replaced Innes Cameron and the injured Kyle Magennis.

Celtic started on top and had the ball in the net within five minutes but Kyogo Furuhashi had strayed into an offside position before finishing well.

Kilmarnock’s response was a curling effort from Danny Armstrong that arced beyond the far post before former Killie defender Taylor came close with a half-volley.

Celtic moved in front after 22 minutes after great play from Hatate. The Japanese fastened on to a quick free-kick from Callum McGregor, burst past Watson before finishing low in the corner.

Hatate almost came close to doubling his tally with an acrobatic volley that was well saved before Palma stretched Celtic’s lead after 33 minutes.

The winger attempted a pass to Hatate only for the ball to rebound back to the Honduran who took advantage to smash in an unstoppable shot.

Celtic started the second half again on the offensive and Hatate’s run and shot was deflected narrowly wide of goal by Kilmarnock defender Lewis Mayo.

Hatate then thought he had won a penalty after he and Watson tangled at the edge of the Kilmarnock box. Before it could be taken, however, the VAR, David Dickinson, asked referee Matthew MacDermid to have a second look and the decision was overturned.

Hatate was involved in most of Celtic’s promising attacks and only an alert save from William Dennis prevented him from adding a third goal.

Kilmarnock grabbed an unlikely lifeline after 72 minutes. Vassell and Alistair Johnston clashed as they chased down a long ball but play was allowed to go on and Liam Polworth teed up Watson who finished well.

The visitors passed up a good chance to draw level when Stuart Findlay nodded wide from a free-kick and that proved costly when Taylor tucked in Celtic’s third after Daizen Maeda had flicked on Matt O’Riley’s corner.

Maeda was then denied by Dennis after running the length of the pitch, with James Forrest unable to convert the rebound.

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers admitted their last-gasp 2-1 defeat by Lazio was a “devastating” blow after he felt they deserved to be in front.

Luis Palma thought he had given the Scottish champions an 81st-minute lead but it was ruled offside by a lengthy VAR check when the officials decided Daizen Maeda had helped on Alistair Johnston’s cross.

There was a bigger blow to follow five minutes into stoppage-time when Pedro robbed Cameron Carter-Vickers before spraying the ball out wide and running into the box to head home the resulting cross.

Kyogo Furuhashi’s early opener had been cancelled out by Matias Vecino following a 29th-minute corner.

Rodgers said: “I’m bitterly disappointed. I felt we totally deserved to take something from the game.

“We had a great start and scored a great goal. I’m disappointed with the goal we conceded, I felt we could do better with the corner.

“We were getting through them and it looked like a matter of time before we could score. We got a goal but unfortunately Daizen just got a touch on it and made it offside.

“I felt at that point we deserved to be in front, we had got into some good areas.

“To concede late on was harsh but there’s a learning there. You have to secure the ball late on. The learning is just managing the game at that late stage.

“We knocked on the door second half, if you can’t make the breakthrough just make sure in that late stage of the game that you are secure behind the ball.”

Carter-Vickers had come off the bench to make his comeback following seven weeks out with a hamstring injury.

Rodgers said: “There’s no blame on Cam, it’s one where they steal the ball from him but if we were in a better position, we deal with the cross.

“That’s the learning for the team – you can’t be coming out from the space unless you have good control of the ball.

“It was a devastating way to lose because we deserved something, but like every game there are learnings and when the Atletico game comes hopefully we can learn the lessons.”

Despite the finest of margins between potential victory and a ninth defeat in 11 Champions League group games at home, the facts remain that Celtic are on zero points from two games in Group E.

Rodgers said: “We were under no illusions at the beginning of the competition where we sat. I said at the beginning our idea was to qualify for European football, and that’s still the ambition and mentality.

“We have shown over the two games against good sides that we can compete. If we can just tidy up one or two moments and maybe get a bit of luck, we will still fight in every single game to get that qualification.”

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has backed Michael Beale to learn from his Rangers experience and be a success in his next job.

Beale was sacked on Sunday after 307 days in the post with Rangers seven points adrift of Celtic in the cinch Premiership following their third league defeat of the season against Aberdeen 24 hours earlier.

Rodgers and Beale were both on the Chelsea coaching staff at the same time and the former Rangers boss was Liverpool Under-21s head coach when the Celtic manager was in charge at Anfield.

“I’m always saddened when any manager loses their job, no matter what club they work at,” said Rodgers when asked for his reaction ahead of Celtic’s Champions League clash with Lazio.

“When you manage Celtic or Rangers, they are big-pressure jobs. I am sure Michael will go away and reflect on his time here and no doubt he will he come back in again, he is an outstanding young coach and manager.

“He will go away and reflect on the pressure he was under and the expectation and the stress that this job can bring, and he will learn from it and go on and get another job and make a success of it, I am pretty sure.

“Whatever club, whoever it is, it’s not nice when someone loses their role and position.

“I hope for him the best for the future, of course.”

Kevin Muscat, Frank Lampard and Pascal Jansen are among the bookmakers’ favourites to succeed Beale.

Former Rangers player Muscat led Yokohama F Marinos to the J-League title last season, following in the footsteps of his coaching mentor Ange Postecoglou, who clinched the treble for Celtic last term with the help of two Hampden wins over Beale’s side.

Lampard is available following underwhelming spells in charge of both Everton and Chelsea last season while Jansen’s AZ Alkmaar side sit second in the Eredivisie after making the semi-finals of the Europa Conference League last season.

Cameron Carter-Vickers could be in line for a surprise recall when Celtic host Lazio in the Champions League on Wednesday.

The centre-back has not played since suffering a hamstring injury against Aberdeen on August 13.

With Gustaf Lagerbielke missing through suspension following his red card in the Group E opener against Feyenoord, and Maik Nawrocki and Stephen Welsh still out through injury, Rodgers has limited options in central defence.

Liam Scales is set to continue in the team following his impressive recent form, while on-loan Liverpool Nat Phillips is available after coming off the bench at Motherwell on Saturday to make his first appearance since suffering an ankle injury on his debut against Dundee on September 16.

Manager Brendan Rodgers said: “In terms of Nat, he came through fine so he will be available.

“Cam, we wouldn’t take a risk unless he was fit. He has come through really, really well. He is further down the road than we thought.

“He has had a real good week of training and he’s been doing lots of other work out on the field before that.

“I said before that it (his return) might have been after the international break but he’s made great progress, so we will just assess that to see if he can be in for the squad (on Wednesday) and if he is, then obviously it would be great news for us.”

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers hailed a “monumental” victory as his team ran out 3-0 winners away to Livingston with 10 men.

A Reo Hatate penalty had the visitors ahead before Joe Hart was shown the first red card of his career for fouling Mo Sangare.

The setback, though, did not affect Celtic and second-half goals from Matt O’Riley and Daizen Maeda sealed a professional win.

Rodgers said: “It was a monumental win in terms of getting back in after playing with nine men during the week [in the Champions League against Feyenoord].

“Livingston is a notoriously hard place to come anyway, never mind with 10 men, so to play with that mentality was very good.

“Attitude and energy are what you need and that is what we had. You don’t get points here for style. You have to dig in and be resilient.

“I thought we played well on a difficult surface and stylistically I thought we played better on the surface with 10 men.

“We always have a plan for that in terms of how we work, how we keep the calmness. I thought the players were outstanding.

“We added to that with two really good goals in the second half. As I said to the guys, when you have Daizen Maeda, it is not like playing with 10 men.

“He does the running of two men, he is absolutely incredible and I was so happy for him that he got his goal. He was so good on the day for us.”

Livingston manager David Martindale felt his team had played better when Celtic had their full complement on the pitch and expressed his frustration at losing a second goal so early into the second half.

He said: “In all honesty, we were probably better 11 v 11. Then the second goal comes after only two minutes in the second half.

“And then momentum goes back in Celtic’s favour. In the second half after that second goal, I think Celtic were worth their money. I thought they worked a lot harder than us all over the park.

“Their application, their endeavour and their desire were probably a lot better than what we showed against 10 men. Sitting here, I’m hugely frustrated at the result, but I don’t think we deserved more from the game in all honesty.”