Former Celtic midfielder Beram Kayal backs Kieran Tierney to bounce back from Israel own goal

BERAM KAYAL is backing Kieran Tierney to bounce back from his own-goal trauma in Haifa.

The Scotland defender suffered the nightmare experience of seeing his attempted clearance of Kayal’s cross fly into the corner of his own net.

As happy as Kayal was about that outcome, he also couldn’t help but feel sympathy for his former Celtic club-mate.

“Kieran was unlucky,” said the Israeli.

“I saw our striker and aimed for him, but my cross was nothing special until his touch.

“So I am happy it ended up a goal.

“But he is a good player with Celtic, and is really pushing himself forward in the game.

“He will come back, and I also believe Scotland as a team has the potential to play better.

“Every week we see the strong performances of their players in the Premier League with Celtic, Rangers and Hearts.

“Against us, they started well with the penalty, and sometimes that would have put us down. But not this time.”

Israel’s success ended a run of four straight defeats, and was the first win for new coach, Andi Herzog.

“It has been a tough time for us so I was just happy to win tonight,” said Kayal.

“We are on a new journey with our new manager, and it was great to get the three points against Scotland.

“He had asked us to press high and to do the things that create chances, and I think we did that very well.

“After losing against Albania, the result is massive for us and puts us back in contention in the group.

“All three teams have three points now, and it is hard to speak about who will win through in the end. We take it game by game.”

The 30-year-old Brighton midfielder is now relishing the prospect of returning to Scotland next month for the return fixture.

He added: “I have been in the UK for nine years now, but I am still one of the Celtic Bhoys. It is an amazing club.

“I was just a young boy when I first went to Celtic, and the memories of the club, of Glasgow, and of the fans will never leave me.”