THE shame painted across Kris Commons’ face after Celtic crashed out of the Champions League on Tuesday night said it all.

Celtic have been here before in recent times: Maribor, Legia Warsaw and Braga; with his 32nd birthday fast approaching this felt like the worst for Commons. He may not get another chance to play in Europe's most prestigious club competition.

“We didn’t turn up, that’s what’s most disappointing”, he said. “There are a lot of emotions. Upset, frustrated. Another year without Champions League football."

The most annoying thing for Celtic was the way in which they allowed Malmo to wrap up the tie. The SPFL champions conceded two sloppy goals from set-pieces in Sweden, having already allowed them to score a vital header from a corner at the death in Glasgow. Lessons that seemed obvious going into the second leg were not learned, and Celtic were punished accordingly.

Commons was left searching for answers but refused to blame Ronny Deila.

“It’s hard to say what the problem was there. We work hard on those set-pieces, week in, week out. We scored from a set-piece against them too . . . there is no blame to be given to any party”.

If shame filled the Celtic camp after the final whistle, Malmo were in shock at the straightforward manner in which they were allowed to create so many chances.

“It was much easier than I thought (it would be),” said goalscoring captain Markus Rosenberg. “There were chances to make it more like 3-0 or 4-0. It almost feels like it was too easy now after the event. It feels as if we could have played another two hours and they still wouldn’t have scored a goal”, boasted strike partner Nikola Djurdjic. “We were deserved winners and had full control of the match”. He wasn’t exaggerating.

Celtic were well aware of how strong the Swedes would be on their own soil, and in truth, a large portion of the damage was already done back in Glasgow. An opening 20 minutes at Parkhead where Ronny Deila’s side had enough opportunities on goal to score four or five yet passed them up now looks incredibly costly in hindsight.

“Trying to kill off a tie within the first 20 minutes of a two-legged tie is incredibly difficult to do”, insisted Commons. “We couldn’t have wished for a better start in the first leg, two nil up within the first 10 minutes. We kept pushing for goals, and then we ended up conceding one. You have to realise what sort of game you’re in, the situation. This isn’t an SPFL game where you can keep forcing the pressure on”.