Friday 24 October 2014 18:53, UK
Ronny Deila wants Celtic to be top of the Scottish Premiership and through to the knockout stages of the Europa League by Christmas.
The Parkhead side took a significant step towards their European goal with a 2-1 home win over Romanian outfit Astra Giurgiu on Thursday night but things aren’t going as smoothly domestically as the current champions are in fifth place, six points behind leaders Hamilton, albeit with a game in hand.
Ahead of Saturday’s game at Kilmarnock, Deila said: "I hope we are ahead when we come to Christmas that's a goal, of course.
"But we'll see what's happening. Every game is difficult and we need to perform well and get the results we want.
"But I hope when we come to the first of January we are ahead.
"If we are 15 points behind at Christmas then it will be hard to get going of course. The points have to come."
Deila also admitted his delight at seeing Stefan Scepovic hit the target in Europe on Thursday and he could keep his place alongside John Guidetti this weekend.
Guidetti was not signed in time to be registered for the Europa League but has been Deila's first choice striker in the league, often supported by Stefan Johansen from an advanced midfield role.
"We will see," he said. "That is a possibility. We have different systems so we can play both and we need more than one striker and we have more than two.
"That is good to have a good selection. It is a fantastic situation. It could be much worse with nobody scoring and then who are you going to use? So that is a positive thing for me."
