Europe still matters, says Lennon

NEIL LENNON says that Celtic aren’t giving up on Europe just yet despite a hugely disappointing start to their Europa League campaign.

Celtic take on Sparta Prague on Thursday night in the Czech Republic having gained just one point from their opening three games, and having lost 4- 1 to the same opponents at Celtic Park a fortnight ago.

With 10- in- a- row on the domestic agenda this season, it was put to Lennon that he may perhaps send a weakened side out for the match later this week, but he says that he isn’t abandoning hopes on qualification from their section just yet.

“Not at the minute, no,” Lennon said. “Obviously the league is the priority and that’s always the case, but Europe is important to us.

“We have not done ourselves justice, particularly in the last game. We have a game on Thursday and we have to win the game, simple as that, to give us any chance of qualifying.

“That’s at the forefront of our minds and then we will take care of the domestic competitions as they come along.”

Before the trip to Prague, Lennon takes his team to Leith this afternoon to face Hibernian, and he has been boosted by some good news on the injury front ahead of the fixture against Jack Ross’s men.

The game will come too soon for Christopher Jullien, but he expects others to have taken advantage of the international break to get back to full sharpness ahead of the match.

“Jullien trained the last few days, so he is not far away,” Lennon said. “The likes of [ Albian] Ajeti have had a really good couple of weeks, as have [ Diego] Laxalt, [ Olivier] Ntcham and [ Scott] Brown. They have had a really good couple of weeks away from the limelight but have been working hard behind the scenes.”