Charlie Mulgrew has admitted that the Europa League would have been no consolation for Celtic’s European heroics.
The versatile star netted in the opening match of the season against HJK Helsinki and starred throughout the ten match campaign.
A goal for Benfica away to Barcelona or Spartak Moscow equaliser wold have dumped Neil Lennon’s side into the Europa League rather than the last 16 of the Champions League.
Back-to-back matches against Barcelona re-established Celtic as a force on the continent with Mulgrew looking forward to further adventures in the new year.
“We’re not here just to make up the numbers,” he stated. “We believe in ourselves and the last eight is our target. Beating Barcelona has given us that belief. Over two legs we can compete with the best.
“Benfica made the quarter-finals last year and Barcelona are a top team so we’ve shown we can compete.
“But it’s brilliant that we’re there. With a little luck things took care of themselves elsewhere. And the Europa League would have felt like a comedown after what we’d done.
“It’s no disrespect to that competition. At the start of the group it would’ve probably looked good but when you get this far you’re so close. Beating Barcelona, you want those three points to mean something.”
Celtic will have to wait until December 20 to find out their opponents in the last 16 of the Champions League.
The SPL champions can be drawn against any of the group winners with the exception of Barcelona with the likelihood being that they will head to Geramy with Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Schalke 04 among the seven possible opponents.
CLICK HERE for Green publishes prospectus
Follow Video Celts on Twitter and Facebook
Correct chico and when we get there were looking to get to the last 4 big man LONDON’S CALLING HH
Delighted to be in the last 16, although we did it the hard way as usual. Now we are there we must give it all we have over both legs then see if that’s good enough to take us further. Our performances v Barcelona H/A show we can compete with anyone, however v Benfica H/A also shows we still have much to learn.
For now though we have domestic competitions to take care of, some work to be done on these fronts. Also hope to see much more of Watt & McGeough in the forthcoming games.