MIKAEL Lustig is convinced it will be third time lucky for Celtic in their attempts to make the Champions League group stages - because they no longer rely on good fortune to score goals in Europe.
Brendan Rodgers' side flew out to Israel yesterday for their critical second leg play-off tie against Hapoel Be'er Sheva with a 5-2 advantage to protect from the first match.
While they have also been conceding soft goals and still have work to do, the Swede feels that 14 goals in their last three competitive matches proves they have enough firepower to feel confident about taking this tie away from the Israeli Champions.
Read more: Brendan Rodgers will resist temptation to splash Celtic's Champions League cash
"We know now that we have guys who can score, who can do that little bit extra," said Lustig. "It is not as if we need luck to score goals any more. Jamesy [Forrest] was unbelievable [against Hapoel], we had Tom [Rogic] in the hole, Griff [Leigh Griffiths] scoring good goals, [Scott] Sinclair on the other side, and Moussa [Dembele] coming in. We have more players who can do things."
In Lustig's eyes, Brendan Rodgers-era Celtic are already a Champions League quality side and making the group stages is overdue. "I think we have done really well with the signings we have made," he said. "Kolo [Toure] is 35 years of age but he looks young in terms of his body. We knew he was going to be a really good player for us in terms of bringing confidence and he has shown that already. Moussa [Dembele] has scored some important goals for us already too.
"It is going to be a tougher game and warm out there," he added. "But we have been close before so we know what to do. Hopefully we have learned something and are more mature now."
On the week Scott Brown announced his international retirement, Lustig said the Celtic captain was a role model for the entire dressing room, even if he has periodically been criticised by even a section of his own support. "Broony has been unbelieveable - a real role model," said Lustig. "He has got something that no-one else has got in the squad, he is a real force for us. A lot of guys get a lot of positive criticism in the media then when it goes bad the supporters always need someone to blame and he is the captain. But he has played through pain and injury. He always wants to play every game and if you are maybe not 100% fit then it is going to show on the pitch. But he is a real model for us and so important for this squad."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here