Celtic confidence is sky high

CELTIC manager Martin O’Neill declared last night that his stars are as buoyant as he could wish for ahead of Thursday’s UEFA Cup semi-final second leg tie in Portugal.

He had feared their last-gasp defeat at Hearts on Saturday could have hit his players' confidence but allayed those concerns after flying into Portugal yesterday, claiming his stars cannot wait for the showdown at the Bessa Stadium.

"The nerves are okay," said O'Neill. "We are fine and we're looking forward to it.

"We know it's close at hand and we're just trying to prepare as best as we possibly can.

"It's very upbeat. It's great to be here on a glorious April evening and we're involved in a semi-final of the UEFA Cup. The lads are very upbeat and looking forward to the game they are bound to be and they are as upbeat as I want them to be."

Boavista have also suffered a slump in league form, but he is adamant that domestic form will count for nothing.

"I don't think that will have anything to do with the game," added O'Neill.

"It is a UEFA Cup semi-final and I don't think Boavista have been too concerned about their league form for some time.

"In our last three games we have won one, drawn one and lost one so I don't think that will matter much in the battle tomorrow night."

O'Neill has labelled Boavista favourites to book their place in the Seville final on May 21 but revealed his players are confident of scoring tomorrow. They will have to do it the hard way again having sent Liverpool tumbling following the same 1-1 scoreline at Parkhead. The Scottish champions also scored in Celta Vigo, Stuttgart and Blackburn en route to the last four and the Northern Irishman is confident of a repeat.

"This will be a difficult game without a doubt," added O'Neill. "Boavista have proved themselves to get to the semi-final and have proved themselves to be a very formidable team.

"They play very strongly and I think that they have done a lot of hard work at Parkhead, but we are in the same position that we were in the quarter-final against Liverpool.

"We know what we have to do and I think we probably have to score and win the game, the situation is clear for us but we also need a bit of luck this time."