Strachan hails Celtic's spirit

CELTIC boss Gordon Strachan hailed his team's spirit after seeing them pick up their second Champions League point of the season.

The corresponding fixture between the two sides a fortnight ago ended in a 3-0 United win.

The Scot described that fixture as "men against boys" but felt his team did themselves proud against what he admits was far superior opposition.

"Last time I said that it was men against boys but we're not boys, we are men. That's what we have shown tonight," said Strachan.

"They are far better than us. Technically they are a million miles away from us but what we did show tonight was that we are men.

"We can be hard to beat because we have a great team spirit here. We may not be the best group of players in the world but we have a great spirit."

Strachan bemoaned a series of injuries that had hit his side prior to the match.

"We tried our best. The lad that came on (Ben Hutchinson) was our seventh choice striker and it was just too much for him," said Strachan.

"At the end I said we could do with some strikers coming in but we didn't have anyone so that was a problem. We needed something to kick start us tonight, either a goal or a big performance.

"We needed that quality because we were missing seven players tonight, five of who would have made the side.

Meanwhile Ryan Giggs rued Manchester United's inability to claim full points.

"With so little time to go I suppose we'll settle for draw but with the way we played and our tempo in the second half, we probably deserved to win," said Giggs. "It was a disappointing first half for us but the performance in the second half was much better. We came out and worked really hard and kept them pinned down.

"We knew chances would come. We knew we just had to keep the crosses and the one-twos going, keep the tempo up and it would come."

Giggs's goal was a header from close range after Celtic goalkeeper Artur Boruc could only parry a Cristiano Ronaldo shot. "It's always worth following up a shot like that with the ball moving all over the place," Giggs said. "I just gambled and it fell right onto my head."