Celtic's star duo don't faze bullish Hibs 24/yo as he explains 'favourite match-up'

In typical Australian fashion, Hibs defender Lewis Miller is bullish in the face of the sternest challenge Scottish football has to offer.

Miller and his Hibs teammates take on holders and red-hot favourites Celtic at Parkhead in the Scottish Cup quarter-finals on Sunday afternoon. It is the undoubted tie of the round between the two form teams in the country. Hibs have not lost in 15 matches, a run that includes a win over Celtic, although their last visit to Parkhead was also their last reversal, a 3-0 defeat back in December.

Hibs know they are underdogs against a Celtic team that has only been beaten once at home this season - and that was at the hands of Bayern Munich. But they will be roared on by 7,000 fans and right-sided defender Miller revealed that coming up against top opposition inspires him - even if he could be given a difficult afternoon on his flank by either Daizen Maeda or Jota.

Lewis Miller and Hibs dealt with Daizen Maeda and Celtic two weeks ago. | SNS Group

“For me, Celtic's one of my favourite match-ups, right?” Miller said. “Because if you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. And those two are probably one of the highest-rated, highest-performing wingers in the league.

“For me, that's just a challenge, and I always want to beat the best. So it's an opportunity that I love to take, and hopefully I can get that again on the weekend.”

Miller and Co kept the dangerous Celtic front line reasonably quiet on their last encounter in Leith. There is confidence coursing through the veins of all at the club right now, evidenced by a rare bumper away allocation at Parkhead

“I've seen that, yeah,” Miller said of the ticket sales. “I've said it many times, but you talk about belief, right? Now the fans and the whole culture and environment of this club, it's all belief.

“Obviously, the run that we've been on, the fans have been behind us, even through the tough times as well. But now they're just getting the rewards and we want to repay them from the luck at the start of the season that we had. And I think that we're slowly paying them off.”

Miller explained just how confidence has grown at Easter Road over the past few months.

“If we had go back the start of the season, the confidence level was low and the team was kind of, we were on edge in the last few minutes of each game and your head kind of just turns and you don't know what to think,” continued Miller.

“You start creeping in the back of your mind that, oh, something bad is going to happen. But this run that we've been on, however many games I've been, like it just builds that belief, that confidence between one another.

“You can see how they were a unit. We're one team. We just work well. The rotations, it's like music. It's just all rhythmic and I love the way that we're playing at the moment.

Lewis Miller trains ahead of Hibs' Scottish Cup tie against Celtic. | SNS Group

“It's coaching staff. It's game time between one another. Obviously, at the start, the team was kind of rotating a little bit. We've kind of found a foundation of players that start week in, week out, getting to learn one another through training. We're a relatively new group. We have a lot of new faces.

“But I think now that we've solidified and we know each other's ins and outs, I think that us together, yeah, like I said, we’re unbreakable.”

That last adjective will be put the test in the toughest of environments on Sunday.