LUSTIG: WE WERE SUB STANDARD

Mikael Lustig admits Brendan Rodgers could have hooked NINE players on Tuesday if he’d had enough subs.

And the Hoops full- back insists his team-mates will need to find at least another gear from their performance against Anderlecht to have any chance of getting through a round in the Europa League.

The draw tomorrow could pair Celtic with Champions League dropouts such as Atletico Madrid and Sporting Lisbon, not to mention the likes of Arsenal, Villarreal, Lazio and Zenit who topped their Europa League groups.

Lustig said: “The truth is he could have changed eight or nine of us at half-time.

“When we got the ball we couldn’t pass it and when they had the ball we couldn’t get close to them.

“The expectations are high and we didn’t live up to them.

“Yes it was always our goal to have European football after Christmas but whoever we play next, we have to play better than this.

“Anderlecht are a good team but the first half just wasn’t good enough from us.

“The second half was better and we had a couple of chances but we lost the goal.”

Celtic held onto third spot in Group B by virtue of their head-to-head superiority over the Belgians following their 3- 0 win in Brussels.

But losing 18 goals in the section has been a sobering reality check for them.

Lustig said: “We’ve played six games in the group stages and been poor in the first half in all of them.

“We know how we want to play and that means taking care of the bal l. Against Anderlecht we didn’t do that.

“If we’re going to face a team with quality in the Europa League we’re going to have to be better. We’ve managed to get to where we wanted to get to so now we have to try to make the most of it.”