RONNY DEILA wants his Bhoys to start playing the elimination game when they face Astra Giurgiu on Thursday.

Back-to-back Europa League victories over the struggling Romanians would rule the bottom-placed side out of the qualification race.

With Dinamo Zagreb and Salzburg going head-to-head while the Hoops face Astra, six points for Deila's side would put them in a commanding position to top Group D and go through to the knockout rounds.

Deila is eager to ensure his players look no further than Thursday's match at Parkhead. But he acknowledges his side have it in their hands to reduce the battle for qualification by one club, and he insisted: "That's what is the most important thing."

Astra are considered the whipping boys of the group after opening with defeats to Dinamo and Salzburg.

But that has brought its own pressure for Celtic as they are now expected to take maximum points from a side which has just changed managers after a series of poor results domestically and in Europe.

Deila reminds everyone Astra got to this stage by defeating Lyon, and is warning against any complacency from his players, or the Celtic support.

He said: "We know this is going to be a very tough game on Thursday, and we need to be as ready as we were on Saturday in the first half against Ross County.

"Then we can beat anybody."

While Astra are very much an unknown quantity to most of the Celtic squad, Deila does have the advantage of having come up against them this year - and winning silverware after sending out Stromsgodset to defeat them in the final of the Costa del Sol Cup.

That victory came in La Manga in February as Stromsgodset were preparing to defend their Norwegian league title.

Deila's young side won with a goal six minutes from time in a competitive match which saw six bookings - five of them to Astra players.

The Romanians have struggled to recapture their best form this season - which finally cost coach Daniel Isaila his job - but Deila knows enough about them to take them very seriously.

He said: "I remember they are a good team.

"Some of their players have perhaps changed since I faced them with Stromsgodset.

"But we had people out watching them last weekend, so we will know all about them by the time we face them on Thursday."

While Deila's focus is fully on Celtic's game against Astra, for which he hopes to have Kris Commons and James Forrest back after injury, as soon as the final whistle blows at Celtic Park he will be anxious to discover how the game in Austria between Salzburg and Dinamo finished. Salzburg are up beside Celtic on four points, with Dinamo a point behind after their defeat at Parkhead on match day two.

The ideal scenario for the Hoops would be two wins for them against Astra while Salzburg and Dinamo draw both of their games against one another to see the maximum number of points possible dropped.

Deila admitted: "I have not thought about that too much.

"But, yes, that could be the perfect results for us."