Celtic captain Scott Brown has insisted that the Parkhead side will look to capitalise on full home advantage on Thursday night as the Parkhead side host Valencia in the Europa League. The midfielder, who netted a rare goal in the 5-0 dismantling of St Johnstone yesterday afternoon in the William Hill Scottish Cup, has maintained that there is complete belief on the part of Brendan Rodgers' as they prepare to go up against the La Liga side. "It will always be jumping here at home on a European night," said Brown. "The atmosphere is incredible and over the years that is something that has been huge for us.

"But we always fancy ourselves at home, no matter who it is against. We are playing well, results have been good and we are keeping clean sheets so the confidence in the squad is high. We have belief in one another and hopefully we can go and give a solid account of ourselves. "We're excited by it. I don't think we fear anyone. We just want to go out and show what we have got." Scott Bain looks certain to keep the gloves after staying in the team since the Scottish Cup win over Airdrie last month. And Brown has revealed that he doesn't need to give the keeper any kind of pep talk ahead of the Europa League game, something that will be an entirely new experience for the stopper.

"He is very chilled," said Brown. "He keeps the ball and he has kept a clean sheet in every game since we came back from Dubai. We are lucky that we have two top-class goalkeepers here competing for the jersey.

"But Scott is more focussed than anyone. He is really relaxed on and off the park. He knows how we set up and why we set up that way. He plays with his feet, he understands where we want the ball to go and I think he is a player who has unwavering belief in his own ability which is what you need. "If he is asked to play, he'll be absolutely fine." Brown, meanwhile, enjoyed his own goal celebration yesterday. His long range effort was his first goal since February 2017 and he admitted that he wasn't the only one surprised to see it hit the back of the net.

"Oli Burke got a shock," he said. "I don't think he has even seen me score in training. I watched the video back after the game and you can see by Jonny Hayes' reaction that he was taken aback as well! I don't score very often so it is nice.

“I don’t think they actually want me to shoot most of the time! I usually get the shout of ‘Sebo’ two seconds after I shoot.

“It’s one of those that I’ll probably hit one time out of a hundred that sweet and it goes in the top corner.

“The main thing though was getting into the next round, it was a good, proper performance.”

And Brown believes that Scott Sinclair, who netted his second hat-trick of the season, is going into the Valencia game in ideal shape.

"People are always good at giving a wee bit of stick for anyone who plays here but we can deal with it," said the midfielder. "Look at Scotty - he just comes out and gets on with it. We all do.

"He feels pretty good about himself and so he should. He has played well and helped us get through to the quarter-final of the Scottish Cup so it was a good day all round."

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