Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou insists only someone with an agenda would suggest the Hoops do not deserve to be in the Champions League.
Their hopes of progressing in the competition ended on Tuesday night with a 2-0 defeat at home to RB Leipzig, a result that left them bottom of Group F on one point.
They can still qualify for the Europa League knock-out stages if they take at least four points from their remaining two games - at home to Shakhtar Donetsk and away to Real Madrid.
But Postecoglou insists it is unfair to suggest they do not deserve their place in the competition.
"Living here for 18 months I've seen the Scottish national team go from heroes to no hopers no heroes again, so I understand this whole boom/bust cycle that everyone loves to get into here and the whole woe is me," he said.
If anyone can tell me from the four games we've played that we don't deserve to be there or we've been outplayed or looked out of place, then I reckon they're talking from an agenda or some sort of bias because the only questions I've had after each of our games have been about opportunities missed.
"Opportunities missed suggests to me that we've got to improve some areas, for sure 100 percent, but it doesn't say to me that somehow we should think that we don't belong in a competition that we've earned the right to be in."
