Leigh Griffiths will come back to Celtic ready to fight for Champions League place, says Kieran Tierney

Griffiths netted two free-kicks in as many minutes to beat Joe Hart at Hampden and while there was a cruel twist in the tale which denied the striker an historic place in Scottish football folklore, Tierney expects to see the striker return to Lennoxtown later this month ready to hit the ground running.

Brendan Rodgers’ side have a short break now before returning for pre-season training and Tierney suspects that Griffiths will be itching to continue where he left off on Saturday afternoon.

Read more: Graeme McGarry: It wasn't bad luck that put Leigh Griffiths' champagne on ice, it was defensive ineptitude​

“The good thing for Leigh is that he will come back to us at Celtic with his confidence sky high,” said the full-back. “He made it look easy but I think we all know that it is not.

“I was looking at the wall as he was lining up to take the first free-kick and there were at least four players in it who would be six-foot plus. So to be able to get the ball up and back down again in such a short space is a real bit of skill and he was able to do that twice.

Read more: Graeme McGarry: It wasn't bad luck that put Leigh Griffiths' champagne on ice, it was defensive ineptitude​

“We have these Champions League qualifiers as soon as we return and it can only be a good thing for Celtic that we will have Leigh back with the bit between his teeth because those are goals of the highest calibre.

“It will have done his confidence no harm at all to score goals like that against a top class goalkeeper.”

Moussa Dembele led the line throughout the Invincibles campaign until an injury kept him out for the latter weeks of the season.

It gave Griffiths the spot-light for the run-in towards the Scottish Cup win and with Dembele the source of interest from various clubs it will be interesting to see just what happens over the coming months.

AC Milan have been the most recent suitors to take a serious interest in the 20-year-old Frenchman but Tierney believes it can only be in the club’s interests to have two quality strikers competing to play.

“They have both shown their class,” he said. “When you look at top teams throughout Europe they all have a couple of players for every position so it is good that the manager has that headache. I am sure that they will be spurring one another on.”

Meanwhile, Tierney has refused to give up hope of still making it to Russia for next summer’s World Cup.

Read more: Graeme McGarry: It wasn't bad luck that put Leigh Griffiths' champagne on ice, it was defensive ineptitude​

The draw against England on Saturday afternoon was a tough one to take after the elation of looking as though it would be a win, but Tierney has maintained that Scotland will keep on fighting.

“It was hard to take but maybe that is a good thing,” he said. “We came away with a point and a draw and if we’re not happy with that then it shows you that we have the mentality to go and compete at that level.

“We put everything that we possibly could into the game and we were a bit unlucky.

“We were all devastated in the dressing room. I was gutted after the game and I was gutted for Leigh as well. To go and do that against a top class goalkeeper like Joe Hart not once but twice in the space of a couple of minutes was sensational. That we never saw the game out for a win was devastating for all of us.

“It was a crazy ten minutes that finished the game off. Leigh showed his class with the goals but I think every one of us put in that kind of effort. As a team we have to take a lot out of the way that we played. It was so disappointing not to get a win but we go forward with some confidence from the way that we played.

“We won’t stop believing. There are four games still to go and you just don’t know what can happen.

“We have to show the same character and the same mentality in all of those games and you never know, maybe one or two of the other teams might slip up as well.

“There were a lot of positives for us to take from the draw. Some of that was overshadowed immediately after the game because of how we lost that last goal but we need to focus on a lot of the good things that we done against a really good team.”