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Strachan purrs at Scottish resurgence

Gordon Strachan was thrilled that Celtic FC made it a "wonderful couple of nights for Scottish teams" while Carlo Ancelotti bemoaned AC Milan's defending.

Scott McDonald of Celtic celebrates after scoring
Scott McDonald of Celtic celebrates after scoring ©Getty Images

Proud Scotsman Gordon Strachan was overjoyed that his Celtic FC side followed the lead of their Glasgow rivals, Rangers FC, and put on another fine display in the name of Scottish football against AC Milan. However, visiting coach Carlo Ancelotti was disappointed with his side's defending and hopes they can arrest their poor run of form soon.

Gordon Strachan, Celtic manager
We have beaten the European champions - it was an excellent performance. It's been a wonderful couple of nights for Scottish teams. Artur Boruc didn't have a save to make throughout the first half. I thought we could be successful from set-pieces and that's how it worked out. The players were shocked with the AC Milan penalty and it gave us the motivation to keep on fighting until the end. Any time our boys lost the ball, they were giving everything to win it back. We went for the win with a couple of attacking substitutions at the end and, thankfully, we got it. Both Celtic and Rangers now have so many Scotland internationals in their first teams. When players have a good international result, they come back to their clubs with the confidence that they can compete against the best players in the world and that's how it proved tonight.

Carlo Ancelotti, Milan coach
I didn't see what happened with Dida at the end of the match, but it had nothing to do with the final result. Our defending was at fault for both of Celtic's goals and that is not acceptable. It was as a tight game as we expected and it was also pretty physical as the pitch was fairly slick. The real problem for Milan is that, other than the victory over [SL] Benfica on Matchday 1, we haven't won a match since August. This is my main concern and that's what we must now change.