Moi Elyounoussi is the latest Celtic player to state that tonight is a revenge mission against Sparta Prague after what happened at Celtic Park a fortnight ago. Rather dramatically Ryan Christie called it a ‘personal vendetta’ and the Norwegian also had to go through the trauma of getting dragged through the mud after being caught checking the Milan v Lille score on his phone after being substituted in that horrible 4-1 defeat to the Czech side.
“I was disappointed with the first Sparta Prague game and the whole situation afterwards made me really want to show a better side of myself,” Elyounoussi told the new edition of Celtic View. “Questioning my commitment was a trigger for me, so I was determined going into the Motherwell game that I would have a good game.
“Personally, I’ve always been very motivated by wanting to prove people wrong and prove myself wrong whenever I have doubts. I’m my biggest critic and I always have that drive to improve. I take all negativity and channel it into motivation.
“This season I’ve experienced some criticism for my performances and I think that I needed that slap in the face to wake up and show my better side.
“Going forward, I’m going to take that feeling and that disappointment and put it into something positive. That’s just how my mindset works.
“Hopefully, I can keep the performances going but my main goal going into every game is to get a win. If I score, that’s a positive and I’m happy with that.”
After the hugely disappointing result against Sparta at Celtic Park, the side looked much more like themselves with a comfortable 4-1 win at Motherwell – where Elyounoussi kept the match ball – but any momentum was lost with another international break and Celtic returned from that to drop a further two points at the weekend at Easter Road. All hell broke loose as a result.
Our Norwegian forward though believes that Celtic can win in Prague and them enjoy a series of victories throughout the month of December.
“Hopefully, we put on a good performance in these games and get the results. We can take the performances into the next games and build on them.
“The hunger is there to do that and the belief within the squad is there as well. The good thing about football is, you always have the chance to make up for disappointments and turn things around.
“There are a lot of games coming up and the next game is always the most important,” Moi said. “We go into every game trying to win for the fans and create excitement for them and the season.”
