Ronny Deila: Celtic are ready for Qarabag despite limited research time

Scottish champions Celtic will be eager to gain a healthy first-leg advantage when they host Qarabag in the third round of Champions League qualifying on Wednesday.

“But of course we learned last season, we knew it was always going to be hard once you get to the Champions League you are playing against champions, and there is always quality in the opposition and if you lose concentration one little slip and the ball can end up in the back of your net”.

However, a 2-0 victory in the first leg of the tie meant that Deila’s men experienced some nerves in the second leg, particularly when Stjarnan took the lead.

“I don’t think Emilio has been anything different from previous year. We just have to do the things we want to do better than them”.

Deila does have a quandary regarding who starts up front next week. We talk a lot and he knows the things he has to work on to improve. It’s good to have him back.’.

Gary Mackay-Steven and Stuart Armstrong will both come out of the blocks quickly and Stefan Johansen will control the passing in the midfield to create the chances for the attacking line of Ciftci and Leigh Griffiths. It’s a tough choice – Ciftci or Griffiths – but it’s a good problem. I think Nadir has qualities to drop more into the spaces and be a link player and Leigh can be the threat.

Deila, whose side fell at this stage to Legia Warsaw last year, before losing to Maribor after a reprieve, said: “Nobody is scared before they come, you have to make them scared through good play in the game”. In some games, that can be a positive.

“Will it be more hard to keep him (if Celtic go out)?”

Deila, meanwhile, admits Dutch flop Derk Boerrigter is likely to leave the club before August 31 following an injury-prone two years in Glasgow.

“He has been back in training but he hasn’t been good enough for the squad”, said Deila. We need to be kings of that castle.

‘I can’t say anything bad about his attitude because he is trying with the way he is doing things.

“It is up to us to get the fans excited singing and happy early in the game”.

“It’s not only about width, it’s about wingers working both offensively and defensively”.

“We are at home at Celtic Park, so I’m excited“.

As such, Deila’s ambitions stretch not to touching down in the great football amphitheatres of the Nou Camp or the Bernabeu with this current Celtic team and causing an upset, but rather in replicating the heady drama of European adventure on home soil, of offering the kind of 90 minutes that lives in the memory long after the bare stats have been consigned to the history books.