MOHAMED ELYOUNOUSSI is looking for three in a row against Sarajevo in the Europa League play-off in Bosnia tonight.
The Norwegian international left-sided raider notched the last-gasp winner against FC Riga in Latvia a week ago and he followed up that strike with the killer third against Hibs at Parkhead on Sunday.
The Morocco-born frontman, enjoying his second successive season-long spell from Southampton, is determined to keep the sequence going on this occasion to fire the Hoops into the competition’s group stages.
However, Elyounoussi was also adamant he doesn’t care who scores against the Bosnians – just so long as the Parkhead men get the job done and make sure the club has European football to look forward to as the campaign infolds.
The 26-year-old forward, speaking to the club website, said: “The most important thing is that we have a good performance. Whoever scores, I’m happy for them and as long as we get the win then I’m happy. Scoring helps your confidence, of course, and I think we’ve been playing good football in general as a team and that’s why you get opportunities.
“It’s never a one-man show, the whole team have been playing well and I’m just happy that I can contribute. Hopefully, we can build on the Hibs result and take that into this game.
“There’s no doubt we want to be in the Europa League. Unfortunately, it’s not the Champions League this year, but we’ll do everything we can to reach our target. We’re focused, the boys looked sharp in training at the stadium and we’re ready.”
Elyounoussi is confident the team will not fail this latest European test and added: “Confidence is important in football generally. But I don’t think it’s just about confidence, I think we played well, we passed well, we were good in possession and we were strong.
“There are always elements of our game that we can build on, but I think if we can match the performance we had against Hibs then we’re looking good.
“We go into the game to win. It’ll be difficult. Riga defended well and perhaps Sarajevo will play similarly against us, but, hopefully, we can score a little bit earlier this time. We concentrate on ourselves and what we can do.
“In the end, it’s all about ourselves and what we can produce in this game. I’m the type of player who’s never satisfied and I think there’s always things we can improve on.”
* DON’T miss the unbeatable match report from Sarajevo v Celtic this evening – only in your champion CQN.
