SO it is to be Group H for...what? Hard? Hellish? Or maybe, most accurately of all: historic? 

Only one of the eight sections assembled in Uefa's unnecessarily convoluted Cham­pions League group draw ceremony contained a full set of European Cup winners yesterday. Celtic's 1967 triumph sits alongside AC Milan's seven, and the eight shared equally between Barcelona and Ajax. Milan's own official website, with a nod to the quartet's rich football heritage, called it "The Group of Nobility".

The cameras and media were invited to share the moment with Neil Lennon and his players, squeezing in to the canteen at the Lennoxtown training ground where all eyes were glued to Sky Sports' coverage from Monaco.

Lennon sat in front of his men in the box season closest to the telly. The cameras were trained on him and typically he didn't let them down. When Celtic were cast into Group H he smiled, then slowly lowered his forehead on to the desk in mock despair.

The thought occurred that it might be the familiarity which had provoked that amusing response. Can Barcelona really be coming back so soon, only 11 months since they left Glasgow on the end of a stunning 2-1 defeat?

No-one turns their nose up about playing Barcelona, but there was the sense that this time Real Madrid, or even champions Bayern Munich, might have delivered an even greater thrill.

Nor are AC Milan or Ajax exactly strangers to Celtic. In Lennon's time as player or manager Celtic have faced Barcelona in 2003, 2004, 2007 and 2012, AC Milan in 2004, 2006 and 2007, and Ajax in 2001. Celtic were in a Champions League group with both Barcelona and AC Milan in 2004-05 (and took two points from a possible 12 against them).

The pair of them are no less daunting now. What do you do to a Barcelona team containing Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi? Add the 21-year-old Brazilian sensation Neymar for £48m.

AC Milan earned more Serie A points than any other team in the second half of last season (they finished third), with the help of goals from Italian strikers Mario Balotelli and Stephan El Shaarawy.

Was all of this why Lennon had momentarily lowered his head? He grinned.

"It was the magnitude of what lay ahead of me! It was the one group where you were thinking 'it would be nice to avoid them' and as sure as eggs is eggs we got it. That's typical for the Scottish teams, we always seem to get the toughies. The pedigree is fantastic, particularly Milan and Barcelona because over the past 10 years they have been among the superpowers in European football and Ajax are rebuilding into a top European team again.

"We are going to compete and try to compete as well as we did last year. You just never know what it's going to bring. Can we get anything against Barcelona? A point or two? I don't know.

"Milan are probably not as strong as they were when they won it in 2007. Ajax are not as strong as they've been in the last 15 years but are showing signs of improvement."

Celtic's real contest looks likely to be with the Dutch to finish third and parachute down into the Europa League knock-out stage in the New Year. The results between them may be more significant than any stray point either of them may spirit away from the big two.

Ajax's manager is the former Rangers player, Frank de Boer, and they recently did business with Celtic for the transfer of winger Derk Boerrigter.

In the aftermath of beating Shakhter Karagandy to qualify, Lennon had cut a brooding, intense figure and sprayed a scattergun of criticism at a variety of targets who had displeased him over the past few days.

Perhaps it was the stress talking, before the relief of qualifying had fully washed over him, because he was far more relaxed and good-humoured yesterday.

He was asked what exactly he had meant when he had said, after the game, that he and the players "hadn't had any help". It had sounded like an insinuation that the Celtic board had not done enough to land big signings.

He played that down yesterday. "People can interpret it any way they like but I know we have been working very hard to bring players in. What I didn't want to do was go to the last couple of days of the window.

"This group draw makes qualifying all the more satisfying, with the pressure we have been under the last six or seven weeks. I've been living in a bubble. I've not spoken to anyone properly because you're thinking about Cliftonville and Elfsborg and Shakhter Karagandy, and that's going to back almost to April.

"People don't see the amount of work that we do. We don't just turn up at nine and finish at three, we're here day in, day out, watching footage, looking at players, looking at our own team and doing what we can to get there.

"Making it to the group was a game-changer. It changes everything. Financially: for the players, for the club. Football wise: the glamour, the reputation, the exposure, the experience, just that feeling, the gravitas of being a Champions League manager, of being a Champions League club, the gravitas of being a player in the Champions League.

"It just makes you walk that little bit taller."