ERIK SVIATCHENKO insists Celtic will recover from their humiliation in Gibraltar and make sure the Hoops progress in the Champions League.
The news of the 1-0 loss against Lincoln Red Imps has reverberated around the continent, but the Danish defender is confident Brendan Rodgers’ players will rectify the situation in Glasgow on Wednesday.
The new Parkhead gaffer admitted he didn’t think the shock defeat was an “embarrassment” and Sviatchcenko commented: “It is up to other people to say what it is.
“However, it is up to us to be professional. We don’t need to panic. We know we are better footballers than them and I am 100 per cent confident we will do our job next week.
We didn’t expect this loss, but we are confident when we go to Celtic Park we will do our jobs. We didn’t do our jobs on Tuesday night.
“Yes, it was a difficult pitch even though we shouldn’t need any excuses because we weren’t good enough.
“But if you see the goal it has suddenly bounced over the head of Efe and didn’t go in our direction.
“We are still confident we will do our job at Celtic Park. That is our ground, it is grass and we will be top professionals. We did prepare well for the first leg and we knew everything about them.
“We were not shocked or anything. They played long balls and we had everything under control, but that chance we needed didn’t go our way.”
The international centre-back insisted the Hoops squad had been hurt by the defeat to the side ranked 407 places below them in the co-efficient table.
Sviatchenko said: “We have a very solid team and we are all working to the same goal which is to go to the Champions League.
“You ask about the pride and that’s different. We just need to keep going and to be serious. We can’t jump around looking for the easy way out, we just need to keep doing the right things and to be ready for the next game.
”Of course, people across Europe will be shocked. That is okay. We are all surprised because we didn’t expect this. Our preparations were at the highest level they could be.
“It wasn’t as if we were taking it easy because we knew it was going to be a difficult task.
“We trained on Monday on that pitch, but these are the sort of things you can’t take out of the game. Sometimes the circumstances can be a benefit or they can be against you.
“I was here last season with my former team and I knew how difficult a game it would be.”
Sviatchenko added: “Of course, fans are angry, but we never go out to intentionally lose. We will do everything in our power to do our job on Wednesday.
“It is never a result you want when you go into the Champions League qualifiers. We knew it would be hard and we didn’t get the result we had hoped for.
“The manager has said the same things I have just said. We need to be confident that we can do our jobs.
“We will be prepared and the better team. We will show them.”
