Neil Lennon declared himself "proud" of his Hibernian players despite their exit from the Europa League on penalties in Denmark.

The Leith side clawed back a first leg deficit against Brondby to force a penalty shootout against the Copenhagen outfit.

However, John McGinn fluffed his lines from 12 yards to see Brondby through to the next round of qualification at the expense of the Scots.

Lennon shifted some blame for his side's exit on to the officials, but praised his players for their second leg display.

He said: "I am proud of them and pleased with them because they did exactly what we set out to do, which was to win. And without poor officials in the first tie we would have been through.

"Any luck in this tie went against us. However I cannot speak highly enough of the team - outstanding - to come away from home and to lose by a penalty shootout is hard to take. But we need to start from here.

"It is a fantastic start to take Brondby all the way at such an early stage. We feel we were the better team and, but for a horrendous goalkeeper error and scoring a perfectly good goal that wasn't allowed, we would be going to Berlin.

"I thought we had the measure of Brondby after the first game. To come here away from home against a team who are flying - 15 goals in four games - and restrict them to very little is a terrific effort."