St Mirren 0 Celtic 5:CELTIC WILL not be lacking in self-belief in the Camp Nou tomorrow evening after Neil Lennon's team strengthened their position at the summit of the Scottish Premier League with the demolition of St Mirren. Four of those goals were struck within the opening 38 minutes.
The St Mirren manager, Danny Lennon, could only admire the ruthlessness of the visitors: “I thought Celtic’s transition from defence to attack was incredible,” he said.
Now Celtic have their sights firmly set on extending a winning run away from home in Europe, and retaining hopes of qualification for the Champions League’s knockout phase. Back-to-back meetings with Barcelona await.
“We always believe we can do something in every game,” said the Celtic midfielder Beram Kayal. “The team has a lot of confidence now. Barcelona are the best team in the world but we are going there believing we can do something.
“It is a good feeling to play against the best players in the world – Iniesta, Xavi [Hernandez] and Messi. It is a good chance for me, for every player at Celtic, to prove we are at that level. We are playing against the best team in Europe and the world. They are going to have control of the game and it will be hard. But we are going to try to do the maximum we can and our manager will prepare us tactically. We will all do our job.”
Celtic have opened their group campaign with a home draw against Benfica and an impressive victory over Spartak in Moscow.
“We want to keep our good position in the Champions League group,” Kayal added. “After the draw at home to Benfica and win in Moscow, it will be good for us if we can continue by doing something in Barcelona. We believe we can qualify from the group, of course we do. We have a lot of confidence now and the result in Moscow proved we can do something in the Champions League.”
Neil Lennon headed straight from Paisley to take in Barcelona’s 5-4 win at Deportivo La Coruna on Saturday evening, a match in which Messi scored a hat-trick. Messi’s partner, Antonella Roccuzzo, is due to give birth in the next 48 hours but the forward has insisted he will play against Celtic.
Lennon is confident of being able to call upon James Forrest and Georgios Samaras for the Barcelona match. Both missed the win at St Mirren, as did Celtic’s captain, Scott Brown, on whom a late decision will be made. Kris Commons and Lassad, who have hamstring and groin injuries respectively, are unlikely to feature.
“It is going to be a different game and a totally different animal even from Spartak Moscow and we are aware of that,” Lennon said. “But Saturday will have done the players no harm at all. I’m taking a pragmatic approach, I won’t be getting carried away with all the surroundings and I want the players to adopt that approach as well. It is for the supporters, all the glamour and glitz; the players have got to go there and compete and do themselves justice.”
ST MIRREN: Samson, van Zanten, McAusland, Mair, Dummett, Guy, Carey, Goodwin (McGinn 78), McLean,Barron (Imrie 46), Thompson. Subs not used: Chris Smith, Robertson, Parkin, Teale, Jack Smith. Booked: Mair,McAusland.
CELTIC: Forster, Matthews (Lustig 75), Wilson (Izaguirre 46), Mulgrew, Ambrose, Wanyama, Ledley, Kayal, Nouioui (Miku 57), Hooper, Watt. Subs not used: Zaluska, McCourt, Rogne, Ibrahim. Booked: Wanyama.
Referee: Calum Murray (Scotland).
