BORNA Barisic today confirmed he did not suffer an injury in the Europa League quarter-final triumph over Braga last night and is “ready” to face Celtic in the Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden on Sunday.
Barisic, who performed brilliantly at left back back as the Scottish champions beat their Portuguese rivals to secure a semi-final spot against RE Leipzig, limped off in injury-time at Ibrox.
However, the Croatian defender, who has not been a regular starter under Giovanni van Bronckhorst this year, revelaed he was just suffering from cramp and will be available to play in the Old Firm game this weekend.
The 29-year-old admitted the gruelling encounter with Carlos Carvalhal’s side, which went to extra-time before a Kemar Roofe goal clinched victory for Van Bronckhorst’s team, had taken a great deal out of him and his fellow players.
However, he is confident it will not impact on their performance against their city rivals and thinks the result will actually increase their self-belief going into the Old Firm derby.
"It is not an injury, just cramp,” he said. “I felt that 10 or 15 minutes before the 90. I tried to play to the end, but I couldn't any more. It is probably because I haven't played for a long time."
“It would be much better if we had played 90 minutes, but it is what it is. If it takes 120 minutes then so be it. The most important thing is we won the game.
“From tomorrow, we will start to think about Sunday. As I said, it would have been better if we had played 90. But we are professionals, we are ready, we are ready for the game on Sunday.”
"These games give us confidence. We had extra time and showed our team spirit, we showed that we are capable.
“We are playing in the semi-finals of the Europa League, a big achievement for players, for fans, for us personally. So this game will give us a lot of confidence for sure.
"We are absolutely happy, delighted. This is what we wanted before the game. We knew that Braga is a good team, but we knew we could beat them and get to the semi-final and we did that."
Barisic was pleased to start in the Braga rematch and is keen to be involved in the Europa League semi-final games against Leipzig.
He confessed that he and his team mates are now dreaming about what they can achieve in the competition.
"I am very happy to help the side to win,” he said. “I always work at training because I knew my chance would come and I wanted just to help the team so I am pleased because I helped the team."
"Yes, we are dreaming about what is possible now. But we have also a semi-final which will be really tough and we are looking forward to playing that game, but we are happy.”
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