Celtic defender Mikael Lustig believes that the Hoops have a chance to win the Europa League – as long as they play the way they did against Bayern Munich.
The Swede was gutted to come away from the game on Tuesday night with nothing to show for the Scottish champions’ brave efforts, but he says that Brendan Rodgers’ men can take plenty of heart from their performance.
And he sees no reason why his side can’t go all the way in the Europa League if they keep their performance levels as high as they were as they gave the German giants a scare on Halloween in Glasgow.
Read more: Bayern Munich legend Arjen Robben tips Celtic for Europa League success
“Yes [we have a chance] – as long as we turn up in the manner we did at home to Bayern,” said Lustig.
“We know we’ll be hard to beat and then we can see what happens after that.
“Of course, one of the goals was to be in Europe after the winter break and it looks quite good for that. We want to go further and get better.”
Lustig believes that the showing against Bayern was right up there with any Celtic have produced in his time at the club.
“We played well against a really good team and created a lot of chances and to be fair we deserved one point,” he said.
“I think it’s probably one of the best Celtic games in my time because it’s against a very good side.”
Read more: Brendan Rodgers: Arjen Robben and Thiago were raving about my Celtic stars
One of the things that pleased Lustig most was the way that both he and his colleagues in the Celtic backline had the confidence and the ability to play out from the back against such an impressive pressing unit as Jupp Heyncke’s side.
“We want to play that type of game and not the long ball,” he said. “They have strong defenders, so if we do that then they will mop it up.
“We wanted to play our game. We are good footballers and that’s why we want to play this way and in this game we did it.
“From that we have shown we can play out from the back. The performance is satisfying but you need a win or a point to make it truly memorable for the rest of your life.”
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