Ciftci gets Deila vote ahead of Griffiths

Nadir Ciftci will start for Celtic in the Champions League clash with Stjarnan.

On Monday the former Dundee United striker was hit with a six match domestic ban but despite that Deila has opted for Ciftci ahead of Leigh Griffiths who scored a hat-trick at the weekend against Eibar of Spain.

Looking ahead to the match Deila said: “The pitch is artificial so it can’t be that bad. It’s better than a very, very bad grass pitch. We played good games on artificial pitches last season. If we are at our best, we have an advantage on an artificial pitch.

CELTIC: Gordon, Lustig, Van Dijk, Boyata, Mulgrew; Bitton, Brown; Mackay-Steven, Johansen, Armstrong: Ciftci. SUBS: Bailly, Izaguirre, Ambrose, Rogic, Griffiths, Stokes, Forrest.

“It’s all just part of the challenge of playing in Europe. Artificial pitches are not a problem, they are easy to play on.

“You are always best at your own stadium so that is an advantage for Stjarnan and probably why they are playing the game there and not at the national stadium.

“The most important thing for us is to continue playing the way we have been playing lately.

“We need to be very good defensively, be compact and balanced. We need to be direct when we have opportunities and keep producing chances. Hopefully, we will be even more effective than we were in the first leg and more like we were at the weekend against Eibar.

“It is good we scored 50 or 60 per cent of our chances and we are going in the right direction all the time. I’m just looking forward to every game now and, of course, I expect us to score.