Neil Lennon has described Celtic's Champions League group as even harder than the one they qualified from last season.
The section with Barcelona, AC Milan and Ajax was quickly dubbed the "group of champions" because all four clubs are former European Cup holders. Celtic were the fourth seeds and are clear underdogs among aristocratic company, but Lennon insisted they had earned their place in the tournament and had no reason to consider themselves "the runt of the litter".
Their Group H campaign begins away to AC Milan on September 18 before Barcelona come to Glasgow on October 1. They face Ajax home and away on October 22 and November 6 respectively. The final home game is against AC Milan on November 26 before they travel to take on Barcelona in Camp Nou on December 11.
After the initial euphoria of qualifying and securing at least £16m by defeating Shakhter Karagandy 3-2 on aggregate in the play-off round on Wednesday, it was all about the football yesterday as Lennon watched the draw on television with his players and invited media at Lennoxtown.
"I've been with this club 13 years and I don't know how many group stages I've been involved in as a player or manager," he said. "But it's just fantastic. And we shouldn't be in awe any more, we should feel a part of it. All right we have to qualify and we've done it but we shouldn't feel like we're the runt of the litter. We are a part of it."
Celtic emerged from a group containing Barcelona, Benfica and Spartak Moscow last season and when that section was assembled Lennon had announced that qualification was "doable". This time he was more circumspect. "I think it's a little bit more 'difficult' than 'doable' this year. In terms of glamour it's the plum group, obviously, but in terms of football it's very, very difficult. Barcelona obviously speak for themselves. Milan have been in a bit of transition but looked very strong against PSV [in the play-off round] and Ajax have consistently been not only Dutch champions but a superb European team who pipped Manchester City last year in their group. We have it all to do but we've got so much to look forward to as well.
"I had hoped we'd get Real Madrid. That was the only one of the big teams I've never faced in a competitive game at European level. I've never been to the Bernabeu either so that would have been a motivation. But the draw we have is fabulous, the travel is no problem for ourselves or the supporters, and in terms of the stadiums you couldn't asked for three greater stadiums in Europe.
"It's hard to gauge where we fit against those teams at the minute and what we can do between now and Saturday evening in terms of strengthening the squad and maybe making it better. I do not want to go through that qualifying process again it's not nice, it really isn't. I think the pressure is off now, we can go and enjoy it. I don't think people can have too much expectation, although there will be some of our supporters who think we can realistically qualify and win the thing!"
A work permit was secured yesterday for the Israeli under-21 midfielder Nir Biton and he has completed a £700,000 move from FC Ashdod. Teemu Pukki's transfer from Schalke, for a fee of around £2.4m, should go through today. Celtic will now attempt to push through at least one more signing, possibly two, before the window closes at 5pm tomorrow.
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