Martin O’Neill insists Celtic are taking the Europa League seriously and has set his sights on reaching the knockout rounds.

The Hoops travel to Lisbon to face Benfica on Thursday night in their second league-phase fixture.

Celtic endured a disappointing start to the competition when they suffered a 3-1 defeat to Ferencváros at Parkhead.

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That result followed their dramatic Champions League qualifying collapse against LASK, leaving the Scottish champions facing an early battle to keep their European campaign alive.

O’Neill has previously stressed the importance of retaining the Premiership title, but he dismissed the suggestion that the Europa League is playing second fiddle to Celtic’s domestic commitments.

“Well, I was asked that question before,” O’Neill said during his pre-match media conference.

“I think the Premiership is very, very important for us, obviously.

“But no, while we’re here -I don’t know how it was taken when I mentioned this – we’re really looking forward to the game.

“We’re ambitious to try and qualify for the knockout stages of the competition, which is sometime in February, so we’ve got some time to do it.

“Obviously, we didn’t get off to a great start, but the players are looking forward to the games. They want to play, they want to contest European football, so all of those ingredients.” [BBC]

Celtic face an extremely difficult task at the Estádio da Luz, with Benfica having won nine of their previous 10 matches across all competitions.

Marco Silva’s side also began their Europa League campaign impressively, defeating AC Milan 2-0 at San Siro.

O’Neill’s comments nevertheless make Celtic’s target clear.

The Premiership remains hugely important, but the Hoops have not travelled to Lisbon merely to make up the numbers.

After dropping three points at home in their opening game, collecting something against Benfica would provide an enormous boost to Celtic’s hopes of remaining in Europe beyond the league phase.