Carl Starfelt played no part in the only blot on Celtic’s domestic copybook this season, but the defender still has “revenge” on his mind ahead of St Mirren’s visit to Parkhead.
Saints are the only Scottish team to beat the reigning Premiership champions this season, inflicting a 2-0 loss on Ange Postecoglou’s side back in September. Celtic will return to league duty on a high after seeing off Kilmarnock to reach the Viaplay Cup final on Saturday.
But Starfelt, who was out injured that day at the SMISA Stadium, is adamant thoughts of a Hampden showdown with Rangers have been immediately put to one side.
“We have to forget about the final now and concentrate on the league matches,” the Swede said. “The next game is the most important one and that is the way you have to look at it if you want to fight in all competitions. Every game is important so the full focus is on Wednesday and St Mirren now.
“We will try to win that game because there is plenty to play for in the league so we need to be really focused on that. St Mirren were the last team to beat us in the league so we want a little bit of revenge!
“We want to win every game, that’s how it is, but maybe a little bit more this one because of what happened last time. We were very disappointed after that game.”
It has been mostly plain sailing since for Postecoglou’s team, and they will arrive at the national stadium for a showpiece occasion against their Ibrox rivals on February 26. Rangers ran out 2-1 winners after extra time in April, the last time the two sides met in Mount Florida.
But Starfelt believes Celtic are a different proposition now.
“Do I feel we are a better team now compared to the last time we played at Hampden? Yes, I feel we have evolved, for sure,” he said. “We have been playing with each other for a longer time, we all know each other better and know what the manager wants. The group is stronger, we know exactly how we want to play and that has been developing constantly. We also have a lot to improve on as well, you always have to keep looking to get better.”
For now, however, Celtic’s focus returns to continuing a seemingly inevitable march to a second consecutive league title. Home advantage will likely ensure a very different encounter with St Mirren this time around, but Joe Hart has ‘no doubt’ they could punish Celtic again, should they fail to perform.
The Paisley side have not quite been able to take their impressive home form on the road, but they remain a tough nut to crack under Stephen Robinson. Celtic were well below par when the teams last met, but Hart believes there’s little need to dig too deeply into what went wrong. He has a point, all indications are that defeat was a mere blip, and the keeper is confident they can put it right this week.
“There’s no doubt they can do it again, no doubt,” Hart said. “St Mirren deserved to do it on the day. But a lot has happened since then. We take care of every game as it comes. The strong encouragement here is not to live in the past.
“If we’re going to concentrate on the past, there is a lot more good than bad. But we don’t rest on our laurels. Every single one of our squad is ready to go. We’re looking forward to Wednesday.
“There were just moments in that game where they got the better of us. It was really quite that simple. I don’t think we were particularly terrible. St Mirren executed their plan really well and we were a little bit off it. I don’t think we are going to go too deep into it.
“We believe that, no matter what moment in the game, no matter what opposition, whether that be St Mirren or away in the Bernabeu, we have proven that we are going to play our way. We believe in it. It can’t be perfect. That’s impossible. But we’re doing our best to play at the highest level we can at all times. We believe that’s going to be enough.
“Honestly, we are not a complacent group. This football team is not complacent. We didn’t lose that game because we were complacent. We lost because St Mirren deserved to beat us on the day. The approach to that game will be no different to this one. We are going to go and try to win it and play the best football we can.”
