CELTIC defender Mikael Lustig has been written off so many times over the past few years, usually after a defeat, but he keeps bouncing back and keeps getting selected by his manager whether that’s for Celtic or indeed Sweden.
The right back was rested by Brendan Rodgers on Thursday evening, with the semi-final against Hearts at Murrayfield in mind. So too was Filip Benkovic. Dedryck Boyata started but is suspended for Sunday, while Jozo Simunovic started but like Cristian Gamboa who took Lustig’s place, both were injured in Germany are are effectively out of the semi-final.
Indeed Gamboa only lasted 45 minutes so the Swedish World Cup star had to put in half a shift on Thursday night, in the goalless second period against Leipzig. Yesterday Lustig spoke to the official club website about the semi-final challenge.
“It will be tough. Hearts have had a really good start to the season, and we know what they’re all about, so they’ll make it really difficult for us.
“It’s similar to last season in that we had a bad result in Europe before the semi-final, but we’re up for the game and the confidence is still high despite losing in Leipzig. There are a lot of goals in our team, and we’re looking forward to it.
“When we play Hearts at Tynecastle, it’s quite a small pitch and we know how they want to play,” Lustig noted.
“We trained at Murrayfield on Tuesday and it’s a really nice stadium. It’s a good pitch, a big pitch, so I think it is going to suit us. Of course, we know Hearts played there last season but our fans are going to make sure it will feel like a home game.
“We are Celtic and the one thing that matters for us is winning, so the pressure will always be at this club. The last two years have been so successful, and we’re going to do everything to try and do it again.
“We know that as soon as we get a bad result, people will try and come after us, and we want to prove a point once again and see if we can win the trophy for the third time in a row,. Hopefully we can do that, so Sunday is a massive game for us.
“The St Johnstone and Hibs games were good for us – that’s how we want to play our football, with good pressing and scoring a lot of goals, and hopefully we can continue that.
“We set targets before the start of the season and we know the feeling when you’re standing there to lift the trophy. We’ve done it before and we want to do it again. We just need to focus on one game at a time, however, and the semi-final on Sunday is all we’re thinking about.”
