MALMO boss Age Hareide has attacked the Scottish media amid controversy over the "pigs" jibe aimed at Celtic following the first leg of their Champions League play-off.
Malmo goalkeeper Johan Wiland branded Celtic players "grisar" - a Swedish word that directly translates as "pigs" - in an interview with Swedish journalists immediately after Celtic's 3-2 first leg win last week. But an angry Hareide chastised a Scottish journalist after being asked about the furore during his pre-match press conference ahead of Tuesday's second leg in Sweden, claiming the word had been taken out of context when translated into English.
Hareide said: "If you travel abroad and you are going to write about players from Sweden or Norway or Germany or Spain or France, you have to learn the words.
"To play like a pig is to play dirty. It was a tough game, but it was not a dirty game."
Thumping his desk, Hareide added: "A pig is something else in English than it is in Scandinavia. You have a word that starts with f and ends in k and you say it all the time. It means something else in Scandinavia. It is not swearing in Scandinavia. So you have to have respect for other languages.
"That is why I am upset with the press, you just translate things and then put them in headlines. The only thing I want from the press is to tell the truth. You have to have respect for languages and the places you travel to, to pronounce things correctly."
The "pigs" comment was not the only controversial utterance coming from the Malmo camp after the first leg. Hareide had claimed Celtic did not have the legs for 90 minutes after Jo Inge Berget netted his second goal deep in injury-time, while Wiland also accused Leigh Griffiths of acting like a child and Rasmus Bengtsson claimed Celtic had players who did too much talking on the pitch.
But Celtic manager Ronny Deila, apparently well-used to his fellow Norwegian's confrontational style, laughed off Hareide's post-match comments.
Captain Markus Rosenberg, meanwhile, insists there is no pressure on Malmo ahead of Tuesday night. Under Hareide, the Swedish club qualified to the group stages for the first time when they recovered a 2-1 first leg defeat by Salzburg to win 4-2 on aggregate.
Rosenberg, who missed the first game at Parkhead through suspension, attempted to put his club's task into context.
"We have done it once and we can do it twice," he said.
"But playing for a club in Sweden, there is never pressure to go to the Champions League because it doesn't happen often. Having done it once, in your head, it is easier to do it a second time.
"There is no pressure, but we know what we can do in this stadium and with these fans anything is possible. We have learned our lesson from the first game. Celtic will not go as offensively, but we will be more offensive."
Rosenberg claim Ronny Deila's side are favourites to go through, but with that assertion he issued a warning to the Hoops.
The former West Brom forward said: "They have a lot of good players, they are a good team and they had a good start in Glasgow.
"The rest of the game was equal, but I see them as favourites tomorrow, being 3-2 up. But Salzburg were favourites and many teams were favourites here and lost, so I am looking forward to the game and hope that we can perform well."
Hareide tried to play down the importance of getting past the Scottish champions.
"It was more important last year, both financially and football wise," he said.
"We had to do something that we had never done before. We did it and I think the boys are more relaxed than last year, but all matches are important at this level and it is very difficult to rate them, this year or last year.
"We are already [at least] in the Europa League, which is a place to play and get experience but we want to be in the finest league, and that is the Champions League."
Hareide believes the atmosphere inside Malmo's 24,000-capacity stadium could make all the difference to the outcome.
"We have an extra boost with our fans," he said.
"We have 20,000 here and it is tight and it gives players energy. You feel that the fans are beside you. The players from Salzburg, Sparta Prague, Olympiacos and even Atletico Madrid noticed the intensity. That is one of the reasons we did so well in the qualifiers.
"No one has scored against us here. We have a clean sheen sheet in qualifying last year and this year. It will be a tough task but we are confident."
