RONNY DEILA believes the strongest team in Scandinavia stands between Celtic and the group stage of the Champions League.
Malmo, the club he turned down the opportunity to manage before taking over from Neil Lennon at Celtic Park, come to Glasgow next week with 180 minutes separating them from a chance to rub shoulders with the best players Europe has to offer.
Malmo have won back-to-back doubles in Sweden and have already made positive noises about the upcoming two-match play-off against their Scottish counterparts.
And Deila has warned that this is as big a test as his club could have landed in the draw. “I was talking with [Malmo] but decided to stay with Stromgodeset," Deila said. "But in my opinion, now they are the best team in Sweden and also maybe the biggest team in Scandinavia.
"They have over 20,000 at their games – the fans are fantastic and they have a history as well. Roy Hodgson won a lot of league titles with them around that time. Now obviously they are back again.
"I know their Norwegian coach [Age Hareide] very well. He’s a coach I respect and he’s one of the best coach we’ve ever had in Norway.
"He’s won titles in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. He’s done it twice in Sweden and has also brought them to the Champions League. So it’s a team that’s going to be tough but also we know how good we can be when we are playing our best. It’s going to be an interesting game.”
If things had worked out differently, Deila could be the Malmo manager right now, but the Norwegian admits the lure of Celtic was far stronger than that of the Swedish champions.
“Of course it was a tough decision [not to take the job] because it’s a big club. But it’s a good choice when I see where I am now. It was after I won the title. We were just talking. It was no more than that.
"I wanted to stay in Stromgodset as I knew the Champions League qualifiers were coming up. That was interesting. I felt a lot of loyalty and commitment to them. But it was harder when Celtic came along.”
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