The Malmo goalkeeper Johan Wiland has said that Celtic’s players behaved like “pigs” and “children” during the Champions League play-off first leg between the two teams at Celtic Park on Wednesday night. Celtic won 3-2 but the Swedes go in to the second leg hopeful of overturning the deficit after Jo Inge Berget’s crucial second goal in added on time.
Celtic led 3-1 going into the 94th minute but failed to defend a corner and the Norwegian, who had a loan spell with the Scottish team in 2014, pounced to deny the home team a two-goal-cushion. It was a niggly game and after the final whistle the Malmo players spoke were critical of how their Celtic counterparts’ behaved during the game.
“They are pigs, all of them, that’s the way it is,” Wiland told Kvallsposten. “You just have to try to stay cool and do what we have to do on the pitch. Leigh Griffiths [who scored twice for Celtic], well, I don’t know what to say, he behaved like a child, tugging shirts all the time.”
The Malmo defender Rasmus Bengtsson told Sportbladet: “There were some players who talked a lot. You probably know who I mean. They have a captain [Scott Brown] and a few others who like to talk. But that’s the way it is at this level. One player who came on [Nadir Ciftci] was not particularly nice. The first thing he wanted to do when he came on was to talk. He had more focus on that than his performance. And I don’t think it was to their advantage that they were running around focusing on other things.”
Berget, however, did not join in the criticism of the Celtic players. “I don’t want to say that they are a group of pigs. They have some tough players. We knew before the game that it would be tough so you just have to roll with it.”
The return leg will be played on August 25 in Malmo.
