Mal(mo)practice down to self-doubt

Leigh Griffiths has said that the war of words from Malmo’s players and manager aren’t working. The striker, who scored a brace last time out against the Swedish champions, knows exactly what the Swedish side are trying to do.

As reported by the Daily Record, Griffiths said:

Malmo are just trying to play games with us and we aren’t going to fall for it. Teams will do that all the time and we have got to rise above it.

The comments in the paper have just been silly. We are a good footballing side and hopefully we will go and prove that.

Teams will always try to manipulate you and try and do stuff to get you wound up, but the manager will be cool, will be calm and he’ll have that instilled in us by the time we go out for kick-off.

We knew because we won the game that they would come out and say stuff about us, but we know we’ve got a job to do and we will look to do that.

Celtic will take a slender one-goal lead into the second leg in Sweden after a 3-2 win last week in Paradise. The two away goals could prove crucial, but the Hoops fate still lies in their hands and game ends in a draw they will still progress to the group stages of the Champions League..

The Scot was targeted after the first leg for his performance but Griffiths rebuked the comments on his performance and conduct.

He was saying I was tugging his shirt, but there was nothing in it. I didn’t touch him once. He was the one pushing and pulling. I spoke to the ref and asked him to keep an eye on it.

The assistant behind the goal also made it clear that if he saw him pushing me again he’d give a penalty for it, so I don’t know where their keeper was coming from with what he said.

Griffiths knows the importance of this game for the club and even had a witty reply to the comments from Malmo’s ‘keeper, who branded him a “brat” after last week’s first leg in Celtic Park.

The only person who has called me a brat is my mum.