Strachan: there’s never a time without pressure as Celtic boss

CELTIC manager Gordon Strachan insists the pressure is still on him for the Champions League clash with FC Copenhagen even though his team are already through to the knockout stages.

The Hoops, who are tied on nine points with Manchester United at the top of Group F, are in the last 16 of the tournament for the first time after beating the Old Trafford side 1-0 at home last month.

The Danes are bottom of the section and cannot even win a place in the UEFA Cup by finishing third.

But Strachan said: “Having no pressure whatsoever will never ever happen to a Celtic manager.

“We are in form at the moment, we would like to keep that going by beating Copenhagen which would set us up nicely.

“Wherever we go we have to win, no matter who we are playing.

“If you don’t win every game it brings problems and if you do win you take what comes after that and you deal with it.”

However, in order to ensure top spot and a seeding for the last-16 draw, Celtic need to win away from home in the tournament for the first time.

But the former Coventry and Southampton boss said: “First of all we are delighted to be in this position.

“If you had asked me five games ago I would have grabbed it. We are here and we have the chance to go top of the group which would be fantastic.

“As I said recently I don’t think we are firing on all cylinders at the moment so I would like to get near top form.”

FC Copenhagen coach Stale Solbakken, whose side disperse for the winter break after this game, insists his players will be fired up to finish their campaign on a high.

He said: “We want to get a good result before we go on holiday.

“And we also want to get a better seeding in the future so that we don’t have to play two rounds of qualifiers to get to the group stages.

“We have done nothing but think about this game, preparing for it for weeks.

“A Danish team should be favourites against Celtic at home.

“We lost by a penalty in Glasgow or maybe we could be going into the game looking for a win to go through, so it shows that there are small margins in the Champions League.”

However, he admits he is not surprised the Parkhead side have already qualified for the last 16.

“Every team that comes to Celtic Park will have a hard game. It has been a section where teams have played better at home than away. The disappointing thing for us is that Celtic beat United in the last game.”