I hope this year can be even better than the last

EMILIO IZAGUIRRE is hoping Champions League success can erase the memory of his World Cup disappointment.

The long- awaited experience of representing Honduras in Brazil this summer was not quite the career highlight the full- back had hoped it could be.

His country was eliminated after losing all three matches, and drew a lot of criticism for being labelled the “dirtiest” side in the tournament.

Izaguirre also came under fire for clashing with England striker Daniel Sturridge when the two sides met in a pretournament friendly f i x t u re in Miami.

He believes that all of the criticism that has been aimed at him since the encounter against Roy Hodgson’s men has been a little bit over the top.

He said: “The Honduras team were criticised at the World Cup for our physical style of play.

“But I think teams like Argentina and Uruguay – all the Latin American teams – play this way.

“But Honduras were penalised too much for little things in Brazil. It was as if the referee was waiting to punish us, which was very unfair.

“The worst thing about the England game in Miami was the incident between myself and Sturridge.

“But I apologised many times to him because this is not the type of player I am. I don’t like to hit other players. It’s not my style of game, so that wasn’t nice. We shook hands at the end of the match.

“The World Cup is finished now, it’s in the past. I’m just focused and looking forward to the new season with Celtic.

“I’m just hoping that this season can be even better than last season for the club.”

Celtic secured a 1- 0 first- leg victory ov e r KR Re y k j a v i k during the week, and they will be aiming to finish the job on Tuesday night when they play their first- ever competitive match at Murrayfield. Ronny Deila will make sure Celtic train at their temporary home before the match, but Izaguirre doesn’t believe it will be a factor.

He said: “We really need to do all of those things to try to beat last season.

“We need to look to get into the last 16, or even the last eight, and to win the two Cups and the League. It’s as easy as that!

“The most important thing about the match on Tuesday is to make sure that we don’t think we have already qualified.

“I have never been to Murrayfield before, but I am sure there will be lots of Celtic there supporting the team. We will get a chance to train on it on Monday.

“I don’t care about winning by a bigger margin, I only hope to win this match and then we will think about the next one. The d re a m is to win the Champions League.”