Swedish success inspires Celtic's Mikael Lustig for PSG tie
The 30-year-old is heading to the World Cup finals because last Wednesday he was a member of the Sweden side that defied Italy, and all the odds, to hold the Azzurri on their own patch and clinch a qualifying berth via the play-offs. It was supposed to be a no-hope scenario for a Sweden dwarfed in stature by hosts for whom failure was utterly inconceivable. In that respect, it was an identikit to the Champions League encounter that awaits Brendan Rodgers’ men in the Parc des Princes on Wednesday. In no other respect, Lustig would readily acknowledge.
Sweden, frankly, hacked out the scoreless draw they needed to reduce Italy to the ranks of World Cup finals outsiders for the first time since 1958. After a comfortable first half hour, Lustig conceded, it felt like “65 minutes of added time every minute as we just had to defend”.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide Ad