MX23RW : Friday, November 2 15:08:44

Lustig says Celtic have their swagger back

Lustig says Celtic have their swagger back
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The Hoops beat Hearts 3-0 in Sunday’s Betfred Cup semi-final.

Celtic defender Mikael Lustig insists his team know they will put on a show on the big stage in Scotland.

The champions reached a fifth consecutive final under Brendan Rodgers when they beat league leaders Hearts 3-0 at BT Murrayfield on Sunday.

The victory set up a Hampden Betfred Cup final clash with Aberdeen on December 2 as Celtic look to go one step towards a treble-treble.

And Lustig has warned the Hoops have their swagger back following an indifferent start to the season.

The Swede said: “We feel really comfortable when we come to play at Hampden and now Murrayfield in semi-finals and finals. We know we are always going to put on a great show.

“I said before as well that we know our fans are going to turn up, and they did once again. And it was a pitch we could play good football on, and we did that in the second half.

“Hearts have always got a game plan to be really narrow and if you can win the duels in the middle then you know there is going to be plenty of space. In the second half we did that.”

Celtic have now won five domestic games in a row and hit 13 goals in their past three encounters against Scottish opposition.

Lustig said: “The confidence is starting to come back, the way we want to play football, the last few domestic games we have scored a lot of goals and got a clean sheet as well.

“Football is a lot about confidence. When you don’t have confidence, you may struggle a little bit. But after the game against St Johnstone we are finally starting to score goals and put pressure on opponents, we start to feel that this is how we want to play football. And ever since we have been good.”

Celtic enjoyed a comfortable second half despite missing the spine of their team – the rested Craig Gordon, Dedryck Boyata through suspension and injured trio Jozo Simunovic, Scott Brown and Leigh Griffiths.

They also shrugged off the loss of midfield pair Eboue Kouassi in the first half and Olivier Ntcham at the interval, with substitutes Scott Sinclair and Ryan Christie both proving pivotal in their triumph.

Although Hearts also suffered major injury setbacks, Lustig believes Celtic sent out a statement about their strength in depth.

“The gaffer said beforehand that this game was going to be really important for the subs as well, and the whole squad,” the stand-in skipper said. “They proved that.

“Ryan and Sincy came in and it was a game-changer. That’s the strength of our squad. We have players on the bench and in the squad that can come in during the game and make the difference.”


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Tables
TeamPWDLFAGDPTS
1Hearts116411551022
2Celtic106221841420
3RangersRangers1053223101318
4Hibernian104511861217
5Kilmarnock11452128417
6Aberdeen10442127516
7Livingston1044286216
8St Johnstone11443916-716
9Motherwell10244911-210
10Hamilton AcademicalHamilton11227822-148
11St Mirren11137420-166
12Dundee11029324-212

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