Ronny Deila hails 'unbelievable' Celtic players and crowd after draw with Inter Milan

Ronny Deila praised Celtic's players and their supporters after seeing his side salvage a dramatic 3-3 draw against Inter Milan in the first leg of their last-32 Europa League tie.

Inter led 2-0 and then 3-2 but John Guidetti came off the bench and struck two minutes into stoppage-time to nick a dramatic lifeline for the Scottish champions.

Deila said: "It was an unbelievable football match with and an unbelievable atmosphere. I am so proud of the players.

“We went two down early in the match; it is so hard to get back, especially against an Italian team, but we have talked about being brave, wanting the ball, trying to attack and that is why I am very proud because we caused them problems and got an result in the end.

"We wanted a better one and could have if we didn't give them two easy goals."

The Norwegian boss declined to blame goalkeeper Craig Gordon, even though he appeared to be at fault for Inter’s first and third goals.

He parried Xherdan Shaqiri’s shot, which allowed the forward to score from the rebound, while Rodrigo Palacio got his second after Gordon spilled a cross.

He added: "We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him. We would have a Thursday off. He was unlucky. The fans called his name and I appreciated that."

Guidetti had been left on the bench in recent weeks in the midst of a goal drought but Deila claimed the Swedish striker was ready to get back on track.

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Deila said: "I said early in the week that he was in good focus and he trained well and when you train well you get the results.

"He played well when he came on and got a good goal as well."

On the return leg at the San Siro, he said:  "It is going to every tough. We will need a bit of luck and to put in the best performance of my time here.

"But possible and we are looking forward to it. I believe we can score in the San Siro but we have to better defensively."

Roberto Mancini admitted his side got complacent after going two goals up inside 13 minutes.

He said: "We started the game well but it wasn't good enough. We scored two goals and after this we thought it was an easy game.

"We were never finished and we took our chance to come back into the match but Celtic are a good team who play good football. I am not surprised at the result. We know that the game is 95 minutes and with one mistake the result can change.

"I think that we can start the next game with a slight advantage but we will need to play very well."