Let’s be honest, this was what the doctor ordered, as Celtic are still sitting on zero points after two games in the Europa League.

Celtic’s trip to Lisbon to take on Benfica was always going to be the toughest on paper, and it proved to be the case, as Marco Silva’s side ran out 4-1 winners on a grim Thursday evening for those in green and white.

At the break, Celtic were 3-0 down, with Silva telling his players during his speech that they must ‘expect a strong reaction’ from Martin O’Neill’s side.

Silva’s reasoning behind that comment was simple; he shared that the champions of Scotland are ‘used to pressure’, and ‘used to winning’, so the half-time team talk wasn’t exactly going to be rosy inside the away dressing room.

How far away are Celtic from genuinely competing with sides like Benfica and why?

Benfica are one of the favourites for the Europa League, something the Hoops should genuinely be targeting

What did Marco Silva say after Celtic’s 4-1 defeat to Benfica in the Europa League?

“A totally fair victory for our team,” said Silva. “An excellent start to the game, with the early goal, which always helps. The ability we had to score the goals and to totally dominate the first half. It made the game look easier than it did in reality.

“It was, in my opinion, and it made it look like Celtic was a team that couldn’t cause us problems, and as they showed throughout the match, they did end up creating some problems for us. When you have so much control. It seems like you can control the ball. You don’t let the opponent press you.

“We managed to be in the attacking half, or always in the attacking half. It creates the feeling that things are going to be easy.

“Then, when we have finished scoring the second and third goals, it seems, at any moment, teams with quality, a team that is used to playing to win, a team that has quality players and that is used to pressure, naturally, after being down 3-0 at half-time, I told the players that we had to expect a strong reaction.

“Naturally, the dressing room talks couldn’t have been easy for them. Naturally, we had to expect a reaction.”

Silva’s analysis is far more accurate than Martin O’Neill or Callum McGregor’s

In the second half, Celtic did manage to pull a goal back through Camilo Duran, after he was played down the middle when Kasper Hogh was hooked off.

Duran would hit the woodwork moments later, as the Hoops produced their best moments after the break, but by then, the game was dead and buried.

Even then, Celtic managed to concede again, as Callum McGregor felt it was ‘a game of two halves’, while O’Neill feels the second-half display gives him ‘determination.’

The issue here is that the damage was done during the first period. As rightfully, and painfully, Silva touched upon, it was a ‘totally fair victory’ for his side.

This ‘game of two halves’ nonsense is just those inside the Celtic dressing room clutching at straws because there are far bigger problems at play here.

One of them being how Celtic are miles behind teams like Benfica on the European stage, who play at what many deem the lower end of the top five leagues in Europe.