Striker Ciftci, who signed from Dundee United this week, came off the bench and won a free-kick late on, which he then laid off for Mackay-Steven to fire home from inside the box. He is of course an option. “He’s a really good player and he’ll add something different to what we already have”.
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“I’m very happy to get him in”.
He said: “The last game was wild but this match was more balanced and we were more compact”.
“Offensively we started without confidence but we grew throughout the game and in the end we created the chances we needed to win”.
“We have things we can do from the bench and we have a strong squad”. So I’m sure we will be ready for Wednesday.
Davie Moyes has admitted that he is sympathetic to the challenges Celtic face in trying to get to the group stages of the UEFA Champions League. It was a good test for us.
Ciftci came on as a substitute against Real Sociedad in a pre-season friendly on Friday, and made an instant impact by assisting Mackay-Steven to score the winning goal in a 1-0 victory.
Celtic’s best response was a Leigh Griffiths low drive that hit the woodwork five minutes after the restart after capitalising on slack play in the Sociedad defence. You want your team to be at their best coming into the last few months of the season when you’re approaching cup finals and league title races.
The trio starred together for Dundee United, and now Deila cannot only rely upon their individual quality, but also their existing chemistry that made them so important for Jackie McNamara’s Terrors.
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“It’s the same for the other teams”.
