James Forrest believes there is real confidence building in the Celtic team under Brendan Rodgers this season.
The Scotland winger has high hopes that factor will be enough to seal a passage past Israeli champions Hapoel Be’er Sheva on Tuesday night and into the Champions League group stages.
The Glasgow side have missed out on the group stage since the 2012/13 campaign when Neil Lennon was in charge.
They have put themselves in pole position to make progress after defeating Hapoel 5-2 in their playoff first leg in Scotland last week.
Rodgers’ side then continued their 100 per cent winning start to the domestic season with a 4-2 success at St Johnstone on Saturday.
Forrest was on target at McDiarmid Park and he suggests there has been something of a sea-change at Celtic since they returned for pre-season training under former Liverpool boss Rodgers.
“Confidence is going through the full team just now since the start of pre-season. We’re kicking-on and hopefully we can take that confidence into Tuesday night,” he told the club’s website.
“I just think since day one of pre-season it has been hard training and everybody has been benefiting from it – fitness and football wise as well.
The more games we play we can kick-on from there.” Forrest, 25, had lost his way somewhat under previous Parkhead boss Ronny Deila.
The winger looks reinvigorated under Rodgers however, his goal against Saints making it two in two in the Scottish Premiership so far.
He also produced an impressive display in the first leg win over Hapoel Be’er Sheva and emphasised the importance of maintaining momentum by taking care of league business at St Johnstone before making the journey to Israel.
Celtic are 2.88 to win the second leg. Hapoel are 2.40 while the draw is 3.40.
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