Maloney reflects on Celtic's Hearts attack
Shaun Maloney pushed back the suggestion that Celtic's 7-1 victory over Scottish Premiership rival Hearts was a "seismic" moment in its season.
Celtic moved four points clear at the top of the league table with a stunning performance at Parkhead, with Callum Osmand, Benjamin Nygren and Camilo Duran all impressing.
But Martin O'Neill's side now turns its attention to Europe as it welcomes Celta Vigo to Glasgow.
The Scottish champion is yet to win in Europe this season, losing to Ferencvaros before being thumped by Benfica 4-1.
Celtic has lost its last three European matches, conceding three or more goals in all three.
Maloney, taking over media duties while O'Neill took care of a personal matter, was asked if the win over Hearts was a turning point: "No," he said. "It didn't feel that seismic, Hearts.
"I know it was a really good performance. Some of the attacking stuff was really good, but it doesn't feel like sort of big moment."
Celta has lost both of its away European matches in Scotland, losing 1-0 both times at Aberdeen in 1971 and Celtic in 2002.
Claudio Giraldez's side has also started its Europa League campaign with back-to-back defeats, the latest of which saw it squander a lead and lose 2-1 to Juventus.
The LaLiga side has lost its last two away Europa League matches, though it has not lost three in a row in major European competition since losing four between March 2001 and October 2002 in the UEFA Cup.
"It's going to be a very different game. I think it sounds really simple, but some of the basics that we did – we had to outrun Hearts in certain areas, and we did," Maloney said.
"The 50-50s came out on our side in that game. There are some fundamental things about a game of football that we got right in that game, we got right in the second half of Benfica, and those sorts of things are probably the challenges we've had since the start of the season.
"With the ball, we can be really creative. We just need to have the same level without the ball consistently, and against Hearts we did. We'll definitely need that [against Celta].
"I think if we can get a really committed team with and without the ball, then we can definitely win this game.
"Celta are a good side, and they can definitely hurt you. So we need both sides, and I just want to see us continue on from the last seven to 10 days on that."
