Mikael Lustig warns Celtic will go for the jugular in Israel

It was a dramatic night inside Celtic Park as the Parkhead side beat the Israelis 5-2 – and Lustig believes that with Leigh Griffiths ready to continue the goalscoring form that he showed last season, that Celtic will be a force to be reckoned with in the return leg.

“We hate to get beat,” said the Swede. “We are going to go there and try to win the game. We will see what the game plan is going to be but we are at our best when we are on the front foot.

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“Leigh’s first goal was unbelievable but you need to give credit to the whole team. I thought James [Forrest] was amazing and put a perfect cross in. Leigh is a striker and we all know that he can score goals.

“There are a lot of guys with goals in them now – it is not just Griff. There were three other guys who scored goals and that is good that is he is getting some help.

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“We are a different team now but hopefully Griff can have the same season that he had last season.

“But we are going there to win. We won’t be satisfied until we are back in the Champions League.”

Lustig was taken off after straining his ankle, but he has commended the attitude within the Hoops squad as they rallied after losing two quick second-half goals.

It was a colossal shift from Celtic to wrestle control of the tie after looking as though they were going to blow it and Lustig has attributed the strength of character to the influence of Brendan Rodgers.

“We played really good football and then we had a crazy five minutes when they suddenly scored two goals,” said the defender. “The mentality and the character we have in the team now – you can see it. It was really important that we got the other two goals.

“I just felt that everyone was spot on in the first-half and then there was a little bit extra. Hopefully we can get through it now.”

Meanwhile, Griffiths himself admitted that this time last year Celtic would have unable to pick themselves up after conceding.

“Losing two goals again I am sure everyone was thinking, ‘it’s going to happen again’ but the manager has got that aura about him for us to keep going,” said the striker.

“We scored two extra goals and we could have made it more in the end. Last year we would have crumbled. Losing two goals in a game of that magnitude we would have crumbled and they’d probably have got an equaliser.

“But the boys showed great character. The manager just wants us to keep going. We are feeling fit, we are running over the park and we never stopped running – that’s why we got the extra goals.

“We need to keep going, keep sticking together - that’s what great teams do.

“It all comes from the manager. He has installed that in us. If we concede a goal we don’t let the heads down, we keep going.”

Scott Sinclair could have effectively sent Celtic through the tie at the death when he saw a shot saved with Griffiths screaming for the ball across the face of goal. “He squares it, I score my hat-trick,” said Griffiths. “But if you had said to us beforehand that we could go to Israel with a three-goal advantage, we’d have bit your hand off for it.”