Kolo Toure: Celtic are ready to finish the battle

The Parkhead side take on Hapoel Be’er Sheva with a 5-2 lead from last week’s first leg in Glasgow.

But while the expectation is that Celtic will cement that advantage to move into the group stages of the elite tournament, Toure has warned that Brendan Rodgers’ side need to approach the game with the same mentality that they did in the first leg.

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“It is dangerous to think that you are there,” he said. “This is only half-time. We have to be prepared to battle, to fight, to give everything. This is where the club wants to be and to get there we are going to have to give it our all and the most important thing is that we stay together.

“This is a process. And it takes time, but you can see that we are already getting better and there is a very strong mentality about this team. We are always pushing to win – we want to win all the time.

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“We are a team. If we play as a team and work as a team then we will win as a team. We won the first battle but we are ready to go again.”

While Celtic’s propensity to score goals under Rodgers this season has been marked, there remains a fragility at the back.

St Johnstone caused them a fright on Saturday afternoon when they ate into what was a comfortable cushion, just as the Israelis done last week.

Toure, though, believes that the key is maintaining a strength of unity.

“It is quite a young defence – apart from me, of course – and I enjoy trying to talk them through the game.

“But what is most important is that we defend together. And that is not just the guys who are playing at the back but the whole team. When we don’t have the ball we have to work to get it back, we have to work to close down the spaces and make sure that we are sensible when we do have it.

“We pass the ball together and we want to defend as a team. We have talented players attacking, but the key to defending is being together.

“I know that we need to improve defensively but we you will see that we can do that. We will get stronger and better the more that we understand each other. There are some young guys playing beside me but I love that.

“Part of the reason I came here is to help them get better. They are very talented boys. They will get better, especially when they are playing at this level. It is the best experience that you can get.

“But right now I don’t want to think about anything other than tomorrow’s game. We know how important it is and we want to make sure that we do it right and give everything. But we are ready.”