Celtic manager Elena Sadiku has said that her red card against Rangers on Sunday is the “first and last” of her managerial career.
The Swede was dismissed for sarcastic applause after she had already been booked by referee Jamie Wilkie following the award of a Rangers penalty. It consigned Sadiku to the stand for the remainder of a game that Celtic went on to lose. “It was the first. And my last,” she said. “I would like to not speak about it. It is what it was and it is not how I want to be perceived. I am never going to do it again.”
Sadiku has also insisted that she has not had to lift her players since Sunday’s defeat. They face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night as their mad schedule of games continues. And she believes the weekend defeat will act as motivation for the players to prove themselves.
“I think losing against Rangers and the way we did, I don’t think we felt that we were a bad team or anything like that,” she said. “It became the opposite. We became even more hungry and confident – I didn’t need to pick them up and the players are ready for this challenge now.”
Celtic are without a point in the Champions League so far following defeats to Twente, Real Madrid and Chelsea. The 2-1 defeat against the London club last week at Celtic Park has offered some encouragement to Sadiku.
“We have been growing into the competition,” she said. “Playing the way we did against Chelsea the last time will encourage us even more.
“What the players have learned the most has been to be braver in possession and that is something that we want to do again tonight. We will see how Chelsea line up but I think we know what to expect from them. But we want to do better and that is up to us.
“I know that Sonia [Bompastor] was not really happy with the performance in the last game and we were the happier of the teams. Chelsea will want to show what a good team they are.
“I think they may change some players and may change their shape. We are expecting a Chelsea side who want to prove that they are much better than us and obviously we are going to have the same mindset to produce another good performance.”
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