Ronny Deila, the Celtic manager, said his team had looked “frightened” and “stressed” by the pressure of the Champions League as they capitulated against Malmö last night.
Deila was ashen-faced after a 2-0 defeat that sent Malmö through the play-off round on a 4-3 aggregate. He admitted his players had failed to handle the test of proving themselves good enough to join the elite. Scott Brown, the captain, said he had been “ashamed” by the performance and Deila also condemned their display while accepting his own share of the responsibility.
Instead of banking a guaranteed minimum of £16 million and aspiring to draw Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid or Chelsea in tomorrow’s Champions League draw, Celtic are in with the likes of Schalke, Napoli, Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool, and Fiorentina in the Europa League group draw. Increased participation fees and bonus payments could earn them around £8 million from the lesser tournament but the sense of anti-climax and failure will now define their season.
“We were not even close to the level we can be at,” Deila said. “We looked very uncomfortable on the ball. We didn’t want the ball and looked very frightened and scared out there.
“That’s very, very disappointing. It was not like one player here or one player there, it was a team performance which was not at the level we can expect in these games.
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“The overall hype about Champions League is a big thing. Everyone wants it so badly. You get measured only on Champions League. That’s something you have to deal with. It’s how it is at Celtic. We didn’t cope with it. We looked very stressed, it didn’t look like we enjoyed playing football. The boys didn’t look like they wanted to fight and believe in what we were doing.
“We lose and win together. This is my responsibility. This team was not up to the level we can be and I am part of that. I am the leader of this team. There is some very hard learning [to do]. Malmö deserved to go through.
“We failed as a team, I failed. We didn’t deal with the pressure of these games. There is a lot of talking about the Champions Leane at Celtic and in Scotland. It makes it even bigger. It seems we didn’t cope with that pressure. We didn’t play defensively or offensively as a team. You couldn’t recognise any of the things we worked on.”
Malmö scored both of their goals from corners — three of their four over the tie were from corners — although Celtic had a Nir Bitton goal wrongly disallowed at 1-0. “It could have changed it. It is irritating but in the end we didn’t reach it. I have to look at the overall performance and that wasn’t good enough today. I saw it afterwards, not so clear at time. It was a big mistake, it could have changed the game.
“It shouldn’t be any problem to get up for the Europa League. We have shown tonight it is the level we can compete at. It’s a good competition. Yes, we are much better than we were last season but today we were not. But overall we are much better.”
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Celtic have now conceded 28 goals in European football under Deila and it is inevitable that their best defender, Virgil van Dijk, will now seek to move on. A transfer to Southampton for £10.5 million is expected to be completed this week. “We don’t have to sell him but you never know what is happening in football,” Deila said. “He is a very good player we want to keep.”
The Malmö manager, Age Hareide, was predictably chirpy after his triumph. “It could have been 4-0. If Celtic had got their [disallowed] goal it would still not have been enough and we would have gone through anyway,” he said.