Celta Vigo manager Claudio Giráldez has criticised his side’s performance despite their 2-1 victory over Alavés, demanding improvement before Thursday’s trip to Celtic Park.

Celtic badly need three points in their third Europa League match of the campaign after defeats at home to Ferencvaros and away to Benfica left them pointless.

Celta are also seeking their first points after losing their opening two European fixtures, adding further importance to the meeting in Glasgow.

See the Celtic fixtures for 2026/27 for what comes next.

While both teams head into Thursday on the back of domestic victories, Giráldez was far from satisfied with what he saw on Sunday.

The Celta boss felt his players lacked energy and surrendered possession too easily against Alavés.

Speaking after the match, as reported by AS, Giráldez said, with his comments translated into English:

“It was a very difficult match, considering everything we’d been through and how we started, with very low energy. We were late to every situation.

“In the second half, we showed heart, we dug deep into each player’s remaining effort, and we changed our formation a bit, which surprised them.

“We were clinical with our chances, but we complicated things for ourselves with too many turnovers.”

The victory gave Celta some breathing space domestically, but Giráldez made clear that attention must quickly turn to their European campaign.

“The important thing right now is to get three points. It will give us all a lot of peace of mind, both the staff and the players.

“We’ll move up to seventh or eighth in the league and it gives us some breathing room to prepare for the match in Glasgow, which is fantastic.

“We also have to try to start picking up points in the Europa League. Even so, we haven’t reached the level of football we’ve shown before. We need to recover better and get into the game plan for the next match more quickly.”

The challenge for Celtic is to carry the confidence from Sunday’s 7-1 victory over Hearts into a competition that has so far exposed their shortcomings.

Martin O’Neill has already stressed the need to beat Celta, with another home fixture offering an opportunity to get their campaign moving.

Giráldez’s assessment suggests Celtic may have opportunities if they can press effectively and punish loose possession.

But Celta still found a way to win while below their best. O’Neill’s players will need to reproduce Sunday’s attacking purpose while showing greater defensive discipline than they managed in Lisbon.