SEAD HAKSABANOVIC says that Celtic can beat RB Leipzig without captain Callum McGregor, after playing a starring role in his side’s dramatic win over St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park.
Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou was forced to reshuffle his pack in Perth as McGregor sat out the first match since injuring his knee in Germany in midweek, going to a 4-2-3-1 with Haksabanovic playing in a central attacking role behind Giorgos Giakoumakis.
Celtic created plenty of chances even without their influential skipper keeping things ticking over in midfield, and Haksabanovic hopes that is a sign they can cope without him as they step up a level on Tuesday night.
“He is a big piece of the team, outside and inside the pitch, but I know he is going to be there for us,” Haksabanovic said.
“He will be there to cheer us, but we have to show we can play without him as well.
“I’d say we can win. One hundred per cent. We are playing at home, the fans are going to give us that amazing atmosphere and it is going to feel so good.
“If we go out and give one hundred per cent and believe in ourselves, we have a chance.
“We made chances in Germany, so we are capable.”
Haksabanovic should have had at least a couple of assists in the game at McDiarmid Park after teeing up teammates in good positions, and he says that some shooting practice may be required before Tuesday evening.
“It would have been extremely frustrating if we hadn’t won because we had a lot of chances that we didn’t score from,” he said.
“That last goal made us feel joy and relief. We always go out there to play and take three points and the main thing is that we did that today.
“After training, though, we need to stay and do extra on shooting and finishing. No matter who we play, we feel we are going to make chances, but I think we should have made this game 3-0 earlier and then just play it out.
“You have to be really clinical at Champions League level. That is why I am saying we maybe have to stay behind in training. All of us.
“We need to focus on finishing and everything like that, so that when we do get chances, we are 100 per cent that we are going to score.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here