Legia Warsaw vs Celtic: Ronny Delia admits 'stupid mistakes' cost Hoops as Champions League hopes hang by a thread

Delia appeared shell-shocked as he watched his Celtic side go ahead early on only to suffer a comprehensive 4-1 defeat ahead of next week's second leg

Ronny Delia gestures on the sidelines during Celtic's 4-1 defeat to Legia Warsaw (Getty Images)

Ronny Deila will make sure his Celtic players are clear and certain as to what he expects when they try to recover their Champions League hopes against Legia Warsaw at Murrayfield next Wednesday night.

The Hoops manager appeared shell-shocked after the 4-1 defeat by the Polish club in the first-leg of their third qualifier at the Pepsi Arena on Wednesday night which left their group stage aspirations up in the air.

There was no sign of the disaster to come when the visitors took the lead through midfielder Callum McGregor in the eighth minute but to Deila's horror, his side proceeded to collapse, losing a brace to Legia striker Miroslav Radovic before the break with defender Efe Ambrose red-carded a minute from the interval for deny a goalscoring opportunity to Michal Kucharczyk.

In the second-half 10-man Celtic were let off the hook when Legia captain Ivica Vrdoljak missed the target with a penalty, after captain Charlie Mulgrew was adjudged to have fouled Ondrej Duda inside the box but in the 84th minute Michal Zyro headed in number three before Mulgrew conceded another penalty with a trip on substitute Jakub Kosecki, this time Forster saving Vrdoljak's spot-kick.

That should have been enough drama to be going on with but Kosecki slotted in a pass from Lukasz Broz in the 90th minute to leave next week's return game at Murrayfield - used as Celtic Park is still out of commission due to its use in the Commonwealth Games - a pressure game for Deila who is facing the dispiriting prospect of dropping into the Europa League.

Afterwards the Hoops boss acknowledged the need to get his side sorted for what will be a crucial return game in Edinburgh.

He said: " It was not the plan to go forward at 2-1. We had a spell when we had good control but started making stupid mistakes and they got space behind us.

"That is my responsibility. I have to be much clearer as to what I expect and how we perform as a team, defensively and offensively and we lost our heads and that is not good enough."

"It was a very poor performance and worst of all was the commitment, the energy, I need much more energy in the game.

"We didn't stay together for 90 minutes.

"We started well and got the first goal but then gave way to pressure. We lost our heads and started giving the ball way in midfield so many times and there were mistakes in the back four, some were high, some were low, instead of being together.

"But what is done is done, we have to learn from this very quickly, we got the away a goal and we still have a chance."

PA