Celtic wing wonder wants more big European nights
MOHAMED Elyounoussi has his sights set on Champions League football after helping Celtic take a step towards the tournament proper with a double in the 6-0 win against KR Reykjavik.
The 26-year-old Norway winger returned to Parkhead in the summer for a second loan spell from Southampton and showed at Celtic Park on Tuesday night just why he had been brought back with the first and last goals in a one-sided first-round qualifier against the Icelandic minnows.
Christopher Jullien, Greg Taylor and Odsonne Edouard were also on target, with the visitors scoring an own goal through defender Arnor Adalsteinsson, as Celtic set up a second qualifier, also one-legged, against Ferencvaros — who defeated Djurgarden last night — next week.
Man-of-the-match Elyounoussi said: “All players want to play at the highest level possible and the Champions League is amazing.
“I really want to experience it with Celtic, hopefully in front of our fans.
“I know those nights here at Celtic Park are amazing.
“I heard that it has been a few years since Celtic played in the Champions League.
“It is a huge goal for us. We are going to try everything to reach that goal and obviously the cup and the league as well.
“We have the squad for it, we believe in our manager and coaching team, so this was a good result and we need to focus on the next one.”
The former Molde and Basel attacker believes that there is “more to come” from Neil Lennon’s men.
“I am an offensive player, I like to create chances and score goals,” he said.
“So obviously I am happy to help the team to win the game. I should have scored a hat-trick but hopefully next time.
“We played with confidence and got the clean sheet. It was a good performance.”
Elyounoussi was glad to see his former Basel team-mate Albian Ajeti, the Swiss striker recently signed from West Ham, come off the bench in the second
half to make his debut and hopes they will form a potent partnership again.
He said: “He just came a few days ago. He will need some time to get fit.
“But he is a strong player physically, a smart player, very clever in front of goal.
“He had a few assists for me and I had a few assists for him when we played together.
“When he gets fit and gets confidence, I am sure he will score some goals here.
“We know each other well — if we both play we know what to expect from each other.”
Boss Neil Lennon was glad to see his players’ fitness levels improving
while his side thrashed KR.
The former Northern Ireland international said: “It was important to try and increase the intensity and get the games into their legs, so they should get a benefit from that.
“We’ve got a big couple of weeks coming up now, so it’s important that we keep our focus now.
“The 10 days off didn’t help and we only had two competitive games before this game, whereas a lot of other teams have had four or five, so we’ve got a little bit of catching up to do.
“The likes of (Olivier) Ntcham has only played 20 minutes here, 20 minutes there, so I want to give him more game time as we go along.
“Tom Rogic has only had about 15 minutes in the past three or four weeks.
“For the likes of (Hatem Abd) Elhamed and (Nir) Bitton, it’s been very good for them, and they came through it okay, and for the rest of them, to get through another 90 minutes is important, so hopefully we’re over that hump now and we go on now.”