Nir Bitton has sent a public apology to Celtic fans following his red card against Midtjylland in the Champions League last night.

The Israeli international was sent off after picking up the second of two yellow cards for remonstrating with Anders Dreyer.

The match ended 1-1 with new Hoops signing Liel Abada marking his competitive debut with a goal. However, his strike was cancelled out by a Evander free-kick late in the second period.

Bitton took to Instagram to apologise after his red card, he wrote: “I lost my head for a second and got punished for that. Sorry again.”

After an incident-packed first competitive game as Celtic manager, Postecoglou added: “I can’t ask any more of the players.

“We will be better prepared, no doubt, in eight days’ time

“In fact, I don’t think we will ever be as badly prepared as we were tonight going into such an important game and that’s on me.

“It is, I’m the manager of the football club. I’m the one that takes that responsibility of providing support for the players and staff.

“If things aren’t happening it’s on me to make them happen.

“I haven’t done a great job so far to be honest because with the disruptions we’ve had, we haven’t been able to bring the players in.

“My role is to try and reinforce this squad and to try to prepare this squad for what is ahead, and to their credit, the players didn’t look for excuses tonight.

“They put in a solid shift and I’m just disappointed they didn’t get the rewards for what I thought was an outstanding performance.”

Asked about Bitton’s sending-off, for putting his finger in the face of Dreyer who went down too easily in the box, Postecoglou said: “I was frustrated at the result, as I said, not the performance, but Nir had already been booked and when you’ve been booked you have to be careful in your actions.

“When you infringe again, you give the opportunity to the referee to give you another caution.

“It’s disappointing for him more than anything, because he was really keen to put in a strong performance. “He had started the game really well for us, so it’s disappointing for him that he misses the second game as well.”