Celtic captain says they need to be at their best against Valencia

Skipper Scott Brown admits Celtic have to produce their very best performance if they are to avoid a Europa League exit to Valencia on Thursday night.

Celtic captain Scott Brown
Author: Alison ConroyPublished 21st Feb 2019
Last updated 21st Feb 2019

Skipper Scott Brown admits Celtic have to produce their very best performance if they are to avoid a Europa League exit to Valencia on Thursday night.

The Spanish side were comfortable and impressive 2-0 winners in the first leg of the last-32 tie in Glasgow last week and are favourites to finish the job off at the Mestalla.

The Scottish champions have never won in Spain and the Hoops midfielder knows it will take a monumental effort to change that.

He said: Spain is always a hard place to come, Valencia are a top quality team and we need to bring our A game.

We've learned a lot in the last week and how they play, how we can match up to them.

We need to press high up the park and start putting them under pressure.

It is hard. We are 2-0 down and we want to stay in European football for as long as possible.

Last week wasn't a great start, but it is how we bounce back and we believe we have the players and quality to do that but we need to make sure it's a top quality performance.

We have to make sure that we create the chances and take them.

We also have to be patient on the ball and not chase the game for 90 minutes.

We relish every European game, the fans have come over in their thousands and hopefully we can put a good performance on for them.'