It has always interested me coming to Scotland to play.
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Celtic boss Ronny Deila has informed Anthony Stokes and Derk Boerrigter they have no futures at the club and are free to leave.
It was a far from convincing performance from the Scottish champions as they prepare to take a slender 1-0 advantage to Azerbaijan for the second leg of their Champions League third qualifying round tie against FK Qarabag on Wednesday.
Deila has predicted his side will need to defend more in the rematch with Gurban Gurbanov’s team and try to grab an all-important away goal on the counter attack. “It’s nothing pulled, it’s just a knock in the muscle in the calf”, Deila explained afterwards.
County have proved to be stubborn opponents for Celtic over the past couple of seasons, and no-one in the East End of Glasgow will be taking this fixture for granted, but if there is one consolation in all of this for Deila it is surely that their closest League challengers from season 2014-15, namely Aberdeen, have endured an even more draining European sojourn to Kazakhstan ahead of a testing visit to Tannadice on Sunday to face Dundee United in their own opening Premiership fixture.
John Clark was on hand to do the honours before kick-off and the Lisbon Lion received a rapturous reception from the Hoops supporters as he joined club chairman Ian Bankier on the pitch. Kieran Tierney, an 18-year-old left-back, deputised for the suspended Emilio Izaguirre.
Ross County manager Jim McIntyre said he was disappointed with referee Willie Collum’s decision not to send goalkeeper Craig Gordon off as his side were beaten 2-0 by Celtic. “He is a talented player – he just needs to get the stamina to go 90 minutes instead of 60”.
The former Hibs and Wolves man limped back to the halfway line after banging in his first league goal of the new term and it was clear all was not well.
Ciftci’s arrival in a £1.5m deal last month marked something of a change of tack following the failures of Amido Balde, Teemu Pukki, Derk Boerrigter and Stefan Scepovic.
The visitors had a great chance to draw level shortly after that when Dedryck Boyata gifted them possession with a slack pass. Jackson Irvine broke clear and forced Craig Gordon to hare off his line.
“The most important thing for me is to win trophies with Celtic”.
However, when Johansen took a pass from Gary Mackay-Steven 12 yards before rifling past Fox, the points looked safe.
Gordon came to the rescue for Celtic again when a free-flowing move from County resulted in a fierce shot from substitute De Vita that the keeper brilliantly blocked.
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However, Celtic regained their composure and saw out the win with relative ease, Kris Commons spurning a late opportunity to extend the lead when he dragged an effort wide.
