The Celtic manager Neil Lennon has said that it certainly will not be an easy task for the Scottish club to get past the group stages of the Champions League. Celtic have been drawn in the same group containing the likes of Spartak Moscow and Barcelona, while the Portuguese club Benfica also will play against Neil Lennon’s men. Obviously, one of the biggest challenge for Celtic in this group stage will be facing Barcelona twice. However, the manager Neil Lennon has said that the clubs like Benfica and Spartak Moscow should also be not discounted.
It has been four seasons since Celtic last made it into the group stages of the Champions League. This appearance in the group stages will earn Celtic around £ 30 million, which will be going a long way into addressing the debt issues. There has been a talk that Benfica will be weakened a lot following the sale of two important players in the last few days of the transfer window. They recently sold the midfielder Axel Witsel to the Russian club Zenit St Petersburg for around £ 32 million, while the defensive midfielder Javi Garcia was sold to Manchester city for £ 16 million.
“They sold two players in the window, Garcia went to Man City, and the other player went for a lot of money as well. They still have a very strong squad, though. They may be weakened by those sales but they are still a formidable opponent. We are going to take one step at a time so our focus will be Benfica. We had them watched at the weekend because they are our first opponents and they won 3-0 against Nacional at home,” said Neil Lennon ahead of the start of the group stages. Lennon has said that he hopes his players don’t get injured on international duty.
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