The Parkhead side are up against it in their quest to qualify for the next stage after opening with two crushing defeats to Ferencvaros and Benfica.

Two home games are up next, to Celta Vigo and Besiktas before a trip to Portuguese minnows Toreense.

Celtic will be expected to get close to maximun points from those games and their captain is aware they need to

He told TNT Sports: "Yeah, of course. We need to try and get enough points to qualify from the table phase of the competition.

"With the eight games it gives you slightly longer, just in case you don't get off to good start.

"But like you said, the onus is on us to start picking up points if we want to go through."

Reflecting on last night's performance in Lisbon, he added: "Obviously a disappoining result. We were obviously here to try and win, but you need to play against a really good side with really good quality.

"But I think in the first half we really didn't help ourselves in terms of the unforced errors that lead to the goal.

"But the second half gives us something to hang on to in terms of performance. We score one and probably coudl score another couple as well.

"Probably a game of two halves."