Miku in- Hooper out

Neil Lennon has made just one changes to the side that lost 2-1 to St Johnstone at the weekend with Adam Matthews in for Gary Hooper.

Venezuelan striker Miku will lead the line against Benfica despite not having played a full 90 minutes for the club .

Matthews inclusion suggests that Neil Lennon will field a back three centred around Charlie Mulgrew, Kelvin Wilson and Mikel Lustig.

With Hooper not selected it means that Celtic are without last season’s three first choice strikers with Anthony Stokes and Georgios Samaras also missing.

New signings Efe Ambrose and Lassad Nouioui are both on the bench alongside Hooper.

Speaking yesterday Lennon said: “The sign of a good team is who you come back from a defeat and I am looking for a reaction.

“They know that the level of performance (in Perth) was not acceptable, I don’t want to see that again.

“They are entitled to a day off, a bad game, but in the main I’ve been pretty pleased with the contributions this season.

“There shouldn’t be any nerves, this is a competition that the players look forward to playing in, to challenge themselves against the best clubs in Europe and Benfica certainly come into that category.

“What I want to see is the team playing as well as they can. I want to see them express themselves, play the football that they know they are capable of and hopefully improve on Saturday’s performance.”

CELTIC: Forster; Matthews, Lustig, Wilson, Izaguirre; Forrest, Brown, Wanyama, Mulgrew; Commons, Miku

SUBS: Zaluska, Rogne, Watt, Lassad, Ambrose, Slane, Hooper