Malmo followed up their win over Salzburg by beating league leaders IFK Gothenburg 2-1 at home today.
First half goals from Kari Arneson and Markus Rosenberg (penalty) were enough to give the home side full points even though Emil Salomonsson ensured a nervous finish to the match with a penalty five minutes from the end.
Eight players were booked, including IFK defender Thomas Rogne, with Malmo’s Peruvian defender Victor Yotún Flores sent off in the 59th minute.
The win takes Malmo into fifth place, four points behind leaders IFK, after 19 games of the 30 match season played.
Next Saturday Malmo are at home to eighth placed Genfle in their final fixture before facing Celtic for a place in the group stage of the Champions League.
Prior to the match Malmo boss Age Hareide, who described being paired with Celtic as the perfect draw, complained about his team news being leaked on social media, afterwards he had a go at the referee and fourth official over the red card for Flores.
While Malmo were cutting the gap with IFK Celtic were beating Partick Thistle 2-0 at Firhill to make it five clean sheets from six matches this season.
Thomas Rogic and Kris Commons scored the goals with Deila particularly pleased to see the Australian fit again and making an impact.
“Tom was very good for the first 40 minutes,” the Celtic boss said. “You can see what kind of talent he is with his touch of the ball and awareness. “He has a lot of things that he can give to the team and I think we will see much more of him.
“When I came here I hadn’t heard anything about him, so I didn’t know who he was. He was injured the whole time for almost a year last season but once we got him started again I saw that he had something special.
“I told him he would never leave this club before he gets a real chance and now he is showing that he deserves that chance.
“I felt very sorry for Tom in my first eight months here when he just walked around not able to do anything because of injury. But he has the mentality to succeed.”
Hope Celtic Park is full house, and everybody gets right behind the team. It could make all the difference in qualifying for the group stages.
COYBIG
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Penalty in midweek v Salzburg and another today….worth watching them closely.
Good news that Markus Rosenberg is suspended for the first leg. We need to get on top of them and force mistakes. ! feel we are more than capable of scoring in both legs though. 3-0 v Salzburg flattered them, still a great result though.
Today’s was never a penalty. Outside the box as well as a case of the attacking player running straight into the defender. Poor refereeing, but the took advantage of the bad call by the ref.
It should be about how we play, not them.