Ledley happy with perfect pre-season

Joe Ledley believes that Celtic’s ‘perfect’ pre-season can pave the way towards a place in the Champions League.

One win in six matches caused alarm amongst supporters but Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Inter Milan suggested that the team was coming together.

Ledley’s formed an imposing partnership with Victor Wanyama in the middle of the park with Neil Lennon having to decide whether to stick with that pairing or bring in Scott Brown or Beram Kayal.

Celtic have to negotiate their way through two qualifying rounds to make it through to the group stages of the Champions League with Ledley well aware how important that would be for the entire club.

“It is vital for the club and the players to get into the Champions League,” the Welshman admitted. “We need to show the world what we can do.

“It does create extra pressure because we haven’t been there for four years as the fans expect big things and so do the players.

“It is the best competition in the world and we want to be in it.”

Ledley added: “The pre-season preparation has been brilliant. We really worked hard on our fitness this time around and there hasn’t been much travelling.

“It has been totally different and our fitness levels are high. Last year was difficult going to Australia as there was a lot of travelling and it took a while to get used to the time difference.

“This pre-season has been better and we have played some good games. At the end of last week we started to get the balls out again and it showed as we did well on Saturday against Inter.

“Some results have been good and some not so good but we were concentrating on fitness.”

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