Deila Happy With Euro Build-Up

Photo by Jeff Holmes

Ronny Deila has been pleased with Celtic's preparations for their Champions League third qualifier against Qarabag.

The Hoops lead 1-0 from the first-leg in Glasgow and before the long flight to Baku there were concerns about the state of the pitch at the Tofiq Bahramov Stadium.

However, the Celtic boss was unconcerned after a quick look at the surface before training on it and spoke with confidence about the way he expects his side to handle the occasion and the Azerbaijan champions.

The Norwegian said: Since coming to Celtic I have been very impressed with the players and how they handle different situations and it will be no trouble tonight either.

Everything has been perfect. The plane journey was shorter than normal, the hotel is fantastic and it will be good that the sun will be away.

I think we have done everything we can to put in a good performance.

It is not a perfect pitch of course.

But it is a pitch and we are used to playing on those types of pitches in Scotland in the winter so we have to make the best of the situation.

Again, this is how it is in football, sometimes you have different conditions and you have to handle that.''

Skipper Scott Brown believes qualification to the play-off round could come down to trust.

The Champions League is huge for this club, it's where we belong,'' he said.

You have to trust in your defence, midfield and strike force and let everyone do their job.

We defend well as a team and we can keep a clean sheet and score.''

Qarabag coach Gurban Gurbanov was more concerned about Celtic scoring an away goal than the pitch.

We can't change the pitch but we will do our best to play at the highest level,'' he said.

We can't let Celtic score, that is very important.

It will be a hard game, the advantage is with Celtic but we have 90 minutes to change that.''