Ronny Deila rejected proposals that either the condition of the contribution or the warmth Baku will hamper his Celtic group’s chances against Qarabag. The pitch has been signed by the sun however the Celtic supervisor is unyielding his players can deal with the conditions in Wednesday’s Champions League qualifier. Following training on Tuesday, Deila said, “We have to make the best of the situation and play to the conditions”.
What’s more, he said that Southampton have not made an offered for Virgil van Dijk. The newspaper has connected the English Premier League outfit with a £7m move for the Dutch shield. In any case, Deila demands Celtic are not intrigued by offering the 23-year-old, who joined Celtic two years back for £2.6m from FC Groninge. The Norwegian said, “They haven’t bid. He is a top, top international player. We want to make this big club a success and we need the best players and he is one of them.
“We don’t need to sell him. It’s a day before a very important game. I’m impressed with Virgil, he is much focused, he is happy and he really wants to play in the Champions League with Celtic. Deila was in no mood to look for excuses before Wednesday’s early evening kick-off, declaring himself happy with the journey to Baku as well as the team hotel and said he was “very excited” and “looking forward to the game.
On talking with reporters he said, “We have a good opportunity here. I think we have done everything to make a good performance. It is hot here, especially during the day, and it’s going to be hot during the game as well. It is not a perfect pitch but we are used to playing on those pitches in Scotland in the winter. We’ll get more answers when we train on it. This is how it is in football – sometimes you have different conditions and you have to handle that and since I came to Celtic I have been very impressed with how the players have handled different situations. It’s the same for them [Qarabag]. We’ll agree what we need to do and do it as well as we can and then we’ll have a very good chance. “We know that the Champions League is a tough competition. It’s a new game; we are leading 1-0. We are confident that we are a better team now than we were last year. It’s going to be tough but we are prepared.”
