Liam Scales confident Celtic can overcome 'naivety' and rescue European campaign

Liam Scales insists Celtic must become more streetwise in European competition after being exposed to a brutal lesson in their midweek mauling against Atletico Madrid.

The Republic of Ireland international recognises the Scottish champions will have to learn quickly from their 6-0 Champions League loss to the La Liga side if they want to continue taking positive steps on the continental stage.

Atletico were scintillating in attack as the ten-man Hoops crumbled in the Spanish capital to leave their qualification hopes hanging by a thread with two rounds of group stage fixtures left to play.

Daizen Maeda became the third Celt to be sent off during their Group E campaign to date following Gustaf Lagerbielke and Odin Thiago Holm's dismissal against Feyenoord in Rotterdam on Matchday One.

And centre-back Scales reckons Diego Simeone's side were equally cunning in their efforts to send the Japanese attacker for an early bath by surrounding the officials.

He said: "It's probably we're a young team and maybe a bit naïve at times. You play in Europe and you get nothing out of the referees. They're a lot stricter and tackles you might get away with domestically, they give.

"With VAR, you're going to pick up red cards in the way we've been doing. It's frustrating because, with 11 players on the pitch, we had started the game quite well. I know we'd conceded before the red card - but we had quite a bit of the ball and it definitely would have been a more even game with 11 men.

"Atletico 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 learn from it. You see the way they react, all their staff are up off the bench. It definitely doesn't help.

"That VAR screen is right beside their bench and he was probably feeling the pressure. But look, the refs make the decisions and that's fair enough. Playing a game like that with 10 men is tough."

Scales believes Celtic proved they can compete at Europe's elite level by securing draw with Atletico at Parkhead, but he knows his teammates need to start implementing the education being dished out rather than just talking about them.

He added: "You need to learn from these things at this level because teams are so ruthless. And if you don't learn, then the same things are going to keep happening in these games.

"You might feel like you maybe could have got a result. I don't want to sound like a broken record but in a couple of the games in this campaign I feel like we could have got something out of them. OK, not on Tuesday night but we just have to learn from this, take it into the next two games and really have a go at it.

"We got a result at home against Atletico, you know? We're at the level - it's just naivety and poor decisions at times have let us down. 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.

"It's good experience, they are brilliant players. It's a good challenge and I enjoy it, but it's still difficult with 10 men away from home to get results at any level, especially there. Having our backs against the wall for that long with the quality of players they have and the amount of attacking they were doing, they're going to score goals."

Celtic face Serie A outfit Lazio in Italy later this month before rounding off their campaign at home to Feyenoord.