NIR BITTON, the Celtic midfielder, claims it is ‘embarrassing’ that the club’s porous defence has leaked two goals in each of their last six European matches.

During their failed attempt to qualify for the Champions League, Malmo sank four beyond the Glasgow club across both legs before they were parachuted into the Europa League where their dismal defensive run continued against Ajax, Fenerbahce, and now twice against Molde.

Their penchant for kamikaze play at the back has severely hampered their progression in Group A, ultimately leaving them anchored to the foot of it on two points from four games. And Bitton, who sacrificed himself last night with a last-ditch lunge on Ola Kamara which resulted in a red card, did not hide away from drawing attention to Celtic’s Achilles’ heel – and the urgent need to kick it into touch.

“I think the most important thing is to improve our defending,” said the Israeli. “It’s not about only the defenders or the midfielders. It’s about Celtic as a team - we need to defend as a team. We’ve conceded at least two goals in the last six games in Europe. This is embarrassing. We need to work on it and we need to improve.

“It’s just disappointing. With respect, when you play in the Scottish league, you don’t get punished for the kind of mistakes we are making. But when you play in Europe, you pay a high price for these kind of mistakes. We just need to improve ourselves.

“Right now it is hard to explain. We just have to make sure it doesn’t happen next time. We just have to work so hard to improve ourselves because, as I say, we can’t win games like that.”

It was a disappointing end to a week that saw Bitton sign a new contract to extend his stay at Parkhead until 2020. Nights like Thursday were probably not in his thinking when he was sitting pondering his future prior to putting pen to paper, but he remains pragmatic about his future on the continent with Celtic this season.

“Life goes on. I signed a contract and I’m very happy to stay at Celtic. It’s an amazing club and this is an amazing stage for me,” he said. “If you lose one game it is not the end of the world. We just need to make sure we improve ourselves and make sure it does not happen the next time.”