MIKAEL LUSTIG insisted his little piece of trickery was simply a sign of confidence rather than an insult to St Johnstone in Celtic’s 5-2 win on Sunday.
The Swedish defender pulled off the magical move – known as a ‘Rabona’ – as part of the 25-pass build-up to Celtic’s fifth goal in the comeback victory in Perth.
Lustig flicked the ball to Callum McGregor who backheeled it into the path of Moussa Dembele who rolled it beyond the bamboozled Zander Clark to complete his hat-trick.
The international right-back said: “I would absolutely disagree that it’s disrespectful. Of course, if you are standing near the corner flag doing step-overs, then I can buy that.
“But it was a pass – and a good pass, as well – so I don’t see that it’s disrespectful. I’m not sure I’m going to do it again, but we’ll see.”
The sublime move is already being touted as goal of the season. The Hoops strung a bewildering sequence of passes together, with every player getting a touch in nearly two minutes of precision.
Lustig was only one of the components and he said it was further evidence of a team that is firing on all cylinders.
He added: “It’s not something I practise it in training. have tried it before, but it is going to be a big thing when it is part of a goal.
“It was just an instinctive thing. It’s not as if I’m thinking of doing it before the game, I’m not that type of player.
“But I got the ball and it was on my left foot, so I thought ‘why not?’.
“It was a great goal. Callum McGregor’s backheel was brilliant, as well. We made over 20 passes before it, with every member of the team touching the ball, so that’s a really good goal.
“I’m not sure I’ve been part of a goal like that before.
“I tried an overhead kick as well, but that didn’t work out quite so good!
“But it shows you the confidence the team is playing with right now.
“When you have confidence in your game, you can try things like that.”
