Celtic manager Ronny Deila claims he isn't worried for his future at the Scottish champions as he took responsibility for his side's shock 3-1 defeat by Ross County in the Scottish League Cup semifinal at Hampden.
Celtic had made a dream start with Gary Mackay-Steven opening the scoring after just 25 seconds but Martin Woods levelled matters from the penalty spot in the 15th minute after Efe Ambrose was sent off for bringing down Alex Schalk.
County moved ahead in the 48th minute courtesy of a Paul Quinn header before Schalk made it 3-1 in the 63rd minute to send the holders out and end Celtic's hopes of a domestic treble.
It is the second year in a row that Deila's side have suffered semi-final disappointment after they crashed out of the Scottish Cup to Inverness Caledonian in April but the Norwegian denied he felt under any pressure.
"I'm not worried about anything. I've got big ambitions and I'm disappointed as everyone else today," Deila said.
"Cups are tough things as you saw last year and you see this year as well. Things can happen in one game and today it happened again and we went out.
"We are working every day to do these things right but in the end it is my responsibility.
"I'm very, very disappointed today and of course all of the players are as well but what is done is done.
"There is still a lot to play for and I see a team that can be really good here and I'm going to work really hard to get us where we want to be."
Celtic had been the red-hot favourites to join Hibernian in the final on March 13 and came into the match having won five in a row for the first time this season, scoring 19 goals along the way.
And Deila, whose side face nearest challengers Aberdeen in a tough league fixture at Pittodrie on Wednesday, slammed his side's lack of character when faced with adversity.
"I think we showed in the first 10 or 15 minutes that we are a good football team. You can't create any more than that or play that much better than we did," Deila said.
"It's tough to play 80 minutes with 10 men but of course we could have done better. I think we had to show more character when we get something against us. We are a little bit too weak and gave away things too easy. We can be stronger in situations when things go against us. That's something we are working on and we need to get better at.
"We have three days now before we go into a very important game as well and we have to look forward to that. We can really put our stamp on the league and move nine points ahead so there is so much to play for there."
County manager Jim McIntyre couldn't hide his delight as his side, who also upset Celtic 2-0 in the 2010 Scottish Cup semifinal while a Championship side, booked their place in their first League Cup final.
"We felt we had the toughest task in the two semi-finals having to take on the champions and we got off to the worst possible start," McIntyre said.
"But we've shown this season that we always create chances. Sometimes we bemoan our defending at times but we are an attacking side and I'm really looking forward to the final."
No comments:
Post a Comment
drop your comment about your football hero, their fashion style, like who dresses most, who drink most ,who hang out most like going to club , who plays with woman most and so on