Just seven weeks have passed since Celtic last played competitively, but this match was a long time in coming for their manager, Ronny Deila. The Norwegian’s debut season in Scotland was a double-winning success but in some quarters his failure to secure Champions League football tainted an entire campaign. With this comprehensive win over Iceland’s Stjarnan, Deila has at least set the course – albeit a year later than originally planned – for Europe.
“It’s a good result but I hoped that we could finish the game off,” said Deila. “We had the chances to win by more but we were not effective enough. They played how we are used to opposition teams playing – very deep for long periods. But some teams need to do that and it was hard for us.”
Indeed, Celtic will reflect on how better finishing – and converting a 77th-minute penalty – could have rendered next week’s return leg little more than a formality.
Nadir Ciftci – who was handed his competitive debut less than a week after his move from Dundee United – passed up numerous chances. The crowd, forgiving at first towards the new signing, soon became impatient.
“Nadir needs time because he’s only been training with us for a week,” Deila explained. “He needs to start playing to get up to the level we know he can play at.”
Despite a largely dominant first half, Celtic struggled to find the opener, with both Ciftci and Stuart Armstrong thwarted by the Stjarnan goalkeeper, Gunnar Nielsen.
“He held us in the game,” the Stjarnan manager, Runar Pall Sigmundsson, said afterwards. But just as Celtic Park prepared to greet the half-time whistle with a collective groan, the home team took the lead. Stefan Johansen and Mikael Lustig worked a short corner between them, swinging in a delivery for another debutant, Dedryck Boyata, to power home a towering header.
Deila’s side were reminded of just how precarious a single-goal lead in Europe can be after the restart, with Jeppe Hansen and Hordur Arnason coming close to restoring parity. Celtic’s second goal came as an abrupt retort, however, with Johansen breaking through a packed Stjarnan defence following a tidy passing move to toe-poke into the bottom corner.
Celtic should have extended their advantagefurther after 77 minutes, when Johansen was felled in the box by Arnason. Johansen got to his feet and tussled with the designated penalty taker, Leigh Griffiths, for the ball – with Nielsen pulling off a full-stretch save to deny the latter.
“It should be very clear – it’s Leigh Griffiths who takes the penalties,” an irked Deila reiterated, stating that Griffiths was surely distracted by the quarrel that preceded his kick. “Hopefully that’s the last time we see that, because it’s not professional. It impacts on the taker. Everyone knows the longer you wait the more chance you have of missing.”
