Hoops know they always put on a show, says Lustig

Celtic defender Mikael Lustig insists his team know they will put on a show on the big stage in Scotland.

The champions reached a fifth consecutive final under Brendan Rodgers when they beat league leaders Hearts 3-0 at BT Murrayfield on Sunday.

The victory set up a Hampden Betfred Cup final clash with Aberdeen on December 2 as Celtic look to go one step towards a treble-treble.

And Lustig has warned the Hoops have their swagger back following an indifferent start to the season.

The Swede said: “We feel really comfortable when we come to play at Hampden and now Murrayfield in semi-finals and finals. We know we are always going to put on a great show.

“I said before as well that we know our fans are going to turn up, and they did once again. And it was a pitch we could play good football on, and we did that in the second half.”

Celtic have now won five domestic games in a row and hit 13 goals in their past three encounters against Scottish opposition.

Lustig said: “The confidence is starting to come back, the way we want to play football, the last few domestic games we have scored a lot of goals and got a clean sheet as well.

“Football is a lot about confidence. When you don’t have confidence, you may struggle a little bit.

“But after the game against St Johnstone we are finally starting to score goals and put pressure on opponents, we start to feel that this is how we want to play football. And ever since we have been good.”

Celtic enjoyed a comfortable second half despite missing the spine of their team – the rested Craig Gordon, Dedryck Boyata through suspension and injured trio Jozo Simunovic, Scott Brown and Leigh Griffiths.

They also shrugged off the loss of midfield pair Eboue Kouassi in the first half and Olivier Ntcham at the interval, with substitutes Scott Sinclair and Ryan Christie both proving pivotal in their triumph.

“That’s the strength of our squad,” said Lustig.