Lennon is warmly relishing rarest of chances to catch Copenhagen cold

THERE will be a strange role reversal at play when Celtic visit Copenhagen on Thursday.

Normally, a Scottish club is placed at an immediate disadvantage when pitched into knockout competition with a Scandinavian equivalent.

The European qualifiers fall mid-season for the representatives of Denmark, Sweden and Norway and, as such, they are best avoided by Scots teams still in pre-season mode after the summer break.

This week it’s FC Copenhagen who must try to come up to speed quickly. After emerging from an extended winter shutdown to lose at lowly Esjberg on Friday night, the Danish champions must now make a further step up in intensity as the Europa League resumes at the last 32 stage.

While some rust may be inevitable from Stale Solbakken’s team, Celtic are in prime shape, having emerged from a shorter winter break to win eight matches on the bounce.

‘Whether we can catch them cold or not I don’t know, but we can try,’ said Celtic boss Neil Lennon. ‘We played Zenit a few seasons ago when they were in the same boat and they were very strong.

‘Copenhagen are strong too, so we won’t take anything for granted. We’ll be as good as we can against them. We’ve had them watched. They were on their winter break but had a tournament out there.

‘It will be nice to get back into Europe again, although we’ve been enjoying the domestic stuff. There’s a momentum there and a quiet confidence about us.

‘The domestic games have been the priority. So we’re not getting carried away. There will be peaks and troughs along the way.

‘All our focus is on Aberdeen for now and then it will be Copenhagen on Monday.’

Lennon’s domestic work may be a source of great pride but there is an argument to say his best work has actually been done on the European stage this term.

Qualification from Europa

League Group E was achieved with two games to spare, courtesy of back-to-back victories over a Lazio team that is contention for the

Scudetto this season.

Olivier Ntcham’s late winner in Rome was also a landmark moment for the very fact it secured Celtic’s first-ever victory on Italian soil.

On such results are grand reputations built and, while his public pronouncements have been markedly low-key this term, it seems Lennon has been talking big in the confines of the dressing room.

‘The gaffer has touched upon how Celtic needs to be thought of as a European giant of a club,’ said midfielder Ryan Christie. ‘For that to happen you need to have good runs. That’s what we are looking to do and go one further than last season.

‘We were frustrated by how we performed against Valencia because, although we kind of held our own in the second game, we let ourselves down in the first. We want to do better this time.

‘I can’t wait. It will be a really big tie. We were excited when the draw was made and we then put it to the side for a while.

‘It has kind of crept up on us but everybody is excited to go over there and hopefully get a good result to take back to Celtic Park. Everyone is desperate to play in those matches.

‘Hopefully we can go further. We’ve said since the start of the season that we feel we have a point to prove in this competition.’

Christie was a crucial player for Celtic in the group campaign. His goals against Lazio, Rennes and Cluj went a long way to securing a place in the last 32 and it would not be surprising to see Lennon find a place for him in the team on Thursday night.

Hit by a blend of suspension and injury at the turn of the year, the 24-year-old has just one start to his name in 2020 but scored from the bench against Hearts in midweek and pushing hard for a place.

Lennon has been leaning towards a strike partnership of Odsonne Edouard and Leigh Griffiths in recent week but, with Christie and the likes of Moi Elyounoussi and Tom Rogic also in the frame, the system may change.

‘It’s brilliant to have Ryan back,’ added the manager. ‘I was so happy to see him score the other night. He gives you great energy and quality. He’ll probably be frustrated at the minute because he’s not playing as the team is playing so well.

‘But it won’t be too long before he’s back in, that’s for sure.

‘We’ve got a lot of fixtures. We had the luxury of making a few changes last weekend and then a few more again in midweek.

‘I was pleased with the subs against Hearts — Moi, Tom and Ryan all made a big contribution.

‘It’s great having those three in particular to call upon from the bench, the creative types. They’re players who change a game or get you a goal. That was one of the strongest benches I’ve had in my time. With Moi, we have to be a bit more mindful as he’s been out a bit longer. But you can see he’s getting up to speed as well.

‘Jeremie Frimpong is back in training now. We’ll have to see how he and Nir Bitton are for Pittodrie. Hatem Elhamed might take a bit longer because of the length of time he’s been out.

‘We’ll need the full squad at some point. We need to keep them topped up.’