LAZIO midfielder Marco Parolo reckons Celtic's defeat in Romania was a 'foregone conclusion' but admits they cost themselves their Europa League hopes after a double defeat to the Scottish champions.

The Italian giants are challenging for the Serie A title and are just five points off the pace in third place. However, their European campaign was an unmitigated disaster after ending up a distant seven points off group winners Celtic and six points behind Cluj.

The Scottish champions defeated Lazio in Glasgow and Rome in two famous wins.

The Rome side needed Celtic to do them a favour by winning in Romania for them to qualify, but they limped to a defeat at Rennes anyway on the final game.

And veteran Italian international Parolo insisted they never really believed Neil Lennon's side would do them a favour.

Glasgow Times:

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He said: "We knew the result in Romania was a foregone conclusion - we had no expectations of getting through ahead of the final game.

"Let's be honest, we are out of Europe because we lost home and away to Celtic.

"The way our European group went, we didn't deserve to qualify. I hope this campaign has given us a valuable lesson, particularly when we come up against physically strong teams like Celtic.

"Perhaps we didn't have the desire to win the matches against them. There wasn't enough hunger.

"The only positive to take out of the whole experience is that it now gives us a chance to concentrate on Serie A."