The Italian job takes precedence for Mikael Lustig this week as Sweden look for a successful play-off route to Russia.

The Swedish defender has been a mainstay for the Swedes throughout their qualification campaign and there will be little chance of a breather as he swaps the green and white of his day job for the shirt of his country.

On Friday night the Swedes host Italy before the return leg three days later.

And after the make or break of trying to book a place at the World Cup finals, Lustig will return to Glasgow to another fourth-pronged challenge as Celtic compete on all fronts.

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November and December scarcely offers the chance to draw breath for Brendan Rodgers’ side who will look to continue their winning sequence of results with a trip to Dingwall before the League Cup final against Motherwell at Hampden.

Despite the hectic nature of the weeks between now and the start of January, Lustig has insisted that being part of a winning team tends to keep the tiredness at bay.

“You don’t feel it when you are winning,” he smiled.

“It is an exciting time and with the games coming thick and fast it means you are really just ticking over and looking to the next game all the time.

“We have tried for a long time to never look much further than the next one. It seems to be working!

“But obviously we know there are a load of games coming up but as a player you always want to be out there playing and being in as many competitions as you can.”

The defence of the League Cup offers the first opportunity for silverware this season. It was the first trophy delivered under Rodgers last term as well as the 100th of the club and reclaiming again would be one of the objectives on the club’s to do list ticked off.

Hibs are the team who have come closest to blotting Celtic’s copybook with a well deserved draw at Celtic Park earlier this season and Lustig is wary of taking anything for granted.

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“We know that they will make a game out of it but to be honest we don’t want to think about it just yet,” he said. “When we come back from the break we have Ross County, a game that was hard for us last year, so it is just about making sure that we are focussed on our next challenge all the time.”

Rodgers’ side do not need to look far for those.

Aside from their League Cup aspirations there is also the small matter of this month’s trip to Paris to take on PSG.

Mindful of the hammering dished out by the Parisians in the opening Champions League group game, Lustig is keen to draw on the positives of last week’s performance against Bayern Munich.

It did not yield the result that Celtic felt they deserved however there was an indication that they could ask questions of their own against high level opposition.

Doing it with the backing of their own support is one thing, but it will be a different experience entirely in Paris. Lustig, though, expects that there will be lessons and confidence imbued for the manner in which Celtic played last week.

“It was quite bittersweet and I think a point would have been good but our performance at least was much better,” he said.

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“If we can get that third spot in the group then I think we’ll see that as some kind of progress on last season. We showed against Bayern Munich, a really good team, that we can make chances, we can press, we can be aggressive.

“I actually thought that the game against Bayern Munich was one of the best performances we have had in the Champions League against a world-class opponent. Of course, it was hard to take positives from it because we lost the game.

“We felt we gave away both of their goals very cheaply. That is something that comes down to us all as a team. We win and lose together as a team and as a whole we have to defend much better than that.

“It will be a difficult night for us in Paris. But I think one of the good things about the way we played against Bayern Munich is that we can take some confidence from the performance. We were more satisfied with it than we were with the game over there and we have to take some of that into the game against PSG.”

The prospect of Europa League football looms large for Celtic.

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The 3-0 win over Anderlecht means that the Belgians would have to beat Celtic by four clear goals to beat them to the parachuted place.

It seems an improbable scenario but in any case Lustig wants to finish off with the highest tally possible.

The defeat to Bayern last week formally ended any chance Celtic had of reaching the knockout stages, no surprise given the magnitude of the opponents they faces.

“One of our goals this season was to play European football after winter,” said Lustig. “If we can do that then it is another step forward from last year.

“But I think we still have two games to play and we want to come out of them in the best way possible. That is our thoughts at the minute. We are aiming to secure third spot but Anderlecht won’t write it off easily.”