Celtic have been put on the brink of exit from the Champions League qualifying rounds after they lost 4-1 at the hands of Legia Warsaw in the first leg. This was the second round of the qualifying. Celtic came into the encounter with aspirations of reaching the group stages. Prior to the match, manager Ronny Deila has been speaking about giving Celtic an automatic group stages spot given the history of the club. He also says that Celtic are being devoid of this opportunity simply because they are playing in the Scottish Premier League – not recognised as one of the top in Europe.
Deila successfully managed to get Celtic as to the third round of qualifying, but he was to get a major shock in his early days as Celtic manager following this defeat. After the match, he heavily criticised the players for failing to adhere to the tactics. Celtic have a mountain to climb in the second leg. He says that it will be very important that Celtic start the match well. The Norwegian reckons that failure to do so will not only give the opposition enough belief that they can go one step closer to Champions League group stages, but also deflate his own team.
“It was not the plan to go forward at 2-1. We had a spell when we had good control but started making stupid mistakes and they got space behind us. That is my responsibility. I have to be much clearer as to what I expect and how we perform as a team, defensively and offensively and we lost our heads and that is not good enough. It was a very poor performance and worst of all was the commitment, the energy, I need much more energy in the game,” said Deila, who was appointed as the replacement for Neil Lennon.