The Hoops left needing a miracle to overturn huge deficit in March 6 game, AFP reports in Glasgow.

Juventus coach Antonio Conte has suffered much in recent months, but coming away from the "hell" of a noisy and fervent Celtic Park with a 3-0 win in its Champions League last-16 first leg felt like an enormous relief. The Italian champion, which again leads Serie A despite a recent wobble, was dominated by Celtic in the first half as the Scots besieged the Juve goal and harried every player as they were roared on by almost 60,000 passionate fans.

Juve took a third-minute lead through Alessandro Matri before weathering the storm to wrap up the win and its highly probable passage to the quarterfinals through Claudio Marchisio and Mirko Vucinic in the second half.

Conte, banned for 10 months in August for failing to report match-fixing at ex-club Siena before having his sanction slashed to four months in October, knows the second leg in Turin on March 6 should only be a formality but gave credit to Celtic.

"It has been a very important victory but also one where we suffered. Celtic are a great team when they play at home," Conte said.

"I didn't play in a hell like this many times," said the former Juve midfielder, who was in the team when it won its second European Cup in 1996.

"My lads have been superb, it was not easy to play in this atmosphere. We've managed a great result which proves this team has top technical and human values.

"Celtic are not, as a name, among the very best in Europe but it is not an accident that Barcelona lost here in Glasgow and that they eliminated Benfica (in the group stage) who are top of the Portuguese league."

The furious pace of the first half and a number of player spats added to the electric atmosphere but Celtic manager Neil Lennon felt his side could have had at least two penalties with Stephan Licht-steiner grappling with Gary Hooper at corners.

"I'd like to ask the referee is the game different in Spain and Italy? Every time my player moved in the area it was a foul," he asked of Spanish referee Alberto Undiano Mallenco.

Celtic manager Neil Lennon admitted his side needs a miracle if it is to overturn the first-leg result.

"We need a miracle. We have to try and be competitive and try and work our way into the tie," Lennon said after his side's unbeaten home record in Europe this season came to an end. "I said to the players at half-time that it was 1-0 and they were fine and there was a long way to go in the second half.

"But I just felt their heads dropped when the second goal went in. We looked a little bit ragged towards the end.

"We have got a three-week period between now and then. We know it is a daunting prospect at any stage but with a three-goal deficit it is going to be insurmountable almost.

"If we can create the chances that we did tonight and take them then who knows.

"But it's going to be a huge ask now."

Lennon surprised everyone before kickoff as he handed Efe Ambrose a starting place despite the defender playing in Nigeria's African Cup of Nations final win over Burkina Faso on Sunday.

But the gamble backfired with the defender at fault for two of Juve's deadly away goals.

Despite Ambrose's errors, his manager refused to point the finger of blame at the defender, who had only arrived back on a flight from South Africa in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

"He was caught for the first goal - it was nothing to do with tiredness," Lennon said.

"I thought once he got over that he was fine. There was no sign of tiredness when he went in and should have scored really, but that's just down to a bad miss.

"But maybe later, as the game progressed, he did tire but with losing Mikel Lustig we had no alternative but to keep Efe on as we needed the pace at the back as Matri and Vucinic have really good pace.

"You can always question decisions in hindsight. Maybe it was a bit of a gamble but I can't really criticise the team apart from that final wee bit of quality to get us a goal because our build-up play at times was fantastic."

(China Daily 02/14/2013 page12)