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Ronny Deila: “We were sloppy”
Despite going a goal behind to FC Stjarnan in Iceland, Ronny Deila’s men eventually ran out 4-1 winners and their reward is a trip to a country the club has never previously visited in Europe.
Leading 2-0 prior to kick-off away frome home, Celtic surprisingly found themselves behind on the night to Olafur Karl Finsen’s seventh-minute opener.
However, midfielder Nir Bitton eased the nerves when he levelled in the 32nd minute from a Stefan Johansen corner and when defender Charlie Mulgrew fired in a second early in the second half it was all over as a contest with late goals from substitute Leigh Griffiths and Johansen making it 6-1 on aggregate.
The Scottish champions now face a showdown with Azerbaijani side Qarabag in the next round.
“We need to improve”, said Deila. Avoiding injuries is a top priority for the visitors as the qualifiers will pit them against stronger teams and the Champions League is a challenging competition.
Deila was not concerned about having to play the first leg, next Wednesday, at home. Stjarnan will have to go forward a little bit more, but I think they will try to be compact as well again”, Deila told the
“We didn’t want to concede an early goal but it happens sometimes”. Dinamo Zagreb came through in more comfortable circumstances, a double from Marko Pjaca helping the Croatian champion to a 3-0 win over Fola Esch, ensuring a 4-1 aggregate triumph. There’s no problem to play artificial but when you don’t water a pitch it’s totally different. “It is very hard to assess the performance because when you play on a dry artificial pitch it is very sticky and everything is slower than normal”, added Deila. We always ask for a pitch to be watered but they said it was broken. Stjarnan coach Runar Pall Sigmundsson took pride in his team’s display throughout much of the tie and felt a mistake from Belgian referee Jonathan Lardot had been pivotal in tipping the balance of last night’s match back in Celtic’s favour when Bitton scored from a corner. The 23-year-old forward will miss the first six games of the domestic season but is free to play in Europe. Stjarnan opened the scoring after just seven minutes as Finsen finished off a wonderfully-worked team move. “The most important thing is that we go through to the next round and we just want to continue”. “I am very proud of the guys”, he said. “I am really happy, not because of my goal but because we won the game”.
