‘I’D RATHER WIN 4-3 THAN 1-0’ – RONNY DELIA

RONNY DELIA’s faith in his own football philosophy which at Celtic means playing football the Glasgow Celtic way, has not been shaken by the loss of three soft goals against Inter Milan on Thursday evening at Celtic Park. The increasingly impressive Celtic manager reflected on the enthralling Europa League match ahead of today’s early start against Hamilton:

‘We want to be a very attacking team. We started the first few minutes well but then conceded two very easy goals.

‘That was tough so I was a little bit worried at that time but we turned it around to 2-2 and showed very good team spirit and morale so I’m happy for that.

‘If you see the second half, they didn’t create too much and we had two more chances and that was a good performance when you think how hard it can be to score against Italian teams.

‘We have to look at the goals we conceded and work on that. Away is a different ball game. You have to defend better and more than you do at home so we have to really be a good defensive team in Italy and we know we’re going to get our chances.

‘We’ll see if I’ll change the system but I won’t change my principles. We have to find the balance between attacking and defending but I’d rather win 4-3 than 1-0. We want to attack and be offensive but the goals on Thursday were too easy.’

Ronny added: ‘It’s about culture. That’s what we’re working on every day. If you have a clear style of pattern offensively then it’s much easier to go into the next matches when you are tired because you have to rely on a pattern where everyone knows what’s happening.

‘That’s what we’re trying to build here. We saw against Inter that we can switch the play well, get crosses in and that’s going to be hard to cope with for any team coming to Celtic Park.

‘We know the league is the most important thing so this Sunday is more important in my mind because we know what’s in the pot if we win.’