Twenty-four hours after the farce in Milan Ronny Deila’s views on referee Ivan Kruzliak haven’t been diluted.
The Slovakian’s abysmal performance infuriated the Celtic players and fans as every marginal decision went in favour of the hour side with some other decisions not even marginal.
Virgil van Dijk and Stuart Armstrong suffered more than most with the Dutchman red carded while Armstrong was denied an obvious penalty kick early in the match.
Deila has steered clear of referee controversies since taking charge of Celtic and elected to box clever as he discussed Kruzliak’s performance.
“We have bad days, the refs have bad days,” Deila said. “I don’t think he will be very happy with his performance but you can go back seven years or whatever, since I have been the manager, and see how many times I have blamed the referee. I think you will find it was zero.
“Yesterday was special. There were so many things happening and anyone can see that but I am not blaming him. Everyone can have a bad day at work.
“When you get a sending off against a good team like Inter Milan, you know it is going to change the game.
“We had the game where we wanted it and these two free-kicks, they were free-kicks maybe but not a red card.”
Celtic face a charge from UEFA for having five players booked during the match. In the draw for the last 16 of the Europa League Inter were paired with German side Wolfsburg.