As runners up to Barcelona in Group G Celtic are guaranteed to play a group winner in the last 16 draw for the Champions League.
Celtic have been in the position twice before and came out the hat paired with Barcelona and AC Milan.
This time around seven possible opponents come from Manchester United, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Borussia Dortmund, Schalke, Paris Saint-Germain or Malaga, with the first leg in February and the second in March.
Celtic have already played 10 Champions League ties this season, one more than Jock Stein’s European Cup winning side played in 1967, with Lennon in no mood to concede that the next round is the end of the journey that kicked off in April at Kilmarnock when they clinched the title with a 6-0 victory over the Ayrshire side.
“We’re there and we are going to enjoy it,” Lennon explained after last night’s epic performance. “We want to progress as far as we can, who knows where that will take you?
“The spirit is fantastic and we have some quality players. They have put everything into the campaign and they have grown as it has gone on. Some of them have enhanced their reputations no end. I’d like to play Malaga in the next round – it will be nice at that time of the year.
“Seriously, it’s going to be really tough against one of the top teams from the other groups. We will assess things for January. What I would like to do is try and get Gary Hooper and Victor Wanyama tied down on new contracts. I’m not sure too many players will want to leave in January now, with what we have coming up.”
Looking at his own achievements the hoops boss was keen to deflect comparisions with the two bosses that he played under at Celtic.
“Only Gordon Strachan has achieved this before me but I have a long way to go to emulate him or Martin O’Neill, who was a huge influence on my career as well.
“Both of them have been great role models for me, I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for them, particularly Martin. I spoke to him on Tuesday night and I think he’ll be pretty proud of me and delighted for us all.
“Tonight we didn’t play anywhere near as well as we can in the first half but in the second half we had control of the game and deserved to win it. We just looked a wee bit tentative in the first half so we said to them at half time: ‘look lads, you have worked so hard to get here, you have 45 minutes left so go and take it’.
“Watching it was horrible at times. When they put up five minutes of injury time I was up and down, and up and down. I was trying to stay calm but inside my stomach was churning.”
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I would prefer to avoid the two German teams, but apart from that who cares. It’s another two top games, one of which will be another great night at Parkhead.
Totally agree dortmund r frightening at the minute and bayern are last years runners up. Would take anyone of them but a want man utd. Time to give fergies team a good beating once again. HH. GBNL. COYBIG.
Yeah, I’d love that.
The odds would indicate a German side with 3 possibles, I like to avoid Dortmund who look excellent. Ideally someone we haven’t played before so Schalke or Malaga would be great. Gelsenkirchen arena is also a very good venue, think we would have a really good chance to progress.
Probably end up with Man Utd or Juventus though, can’t see Man Utd winning this cup.
Ooops! I forgot about Schalke. But I meant that Dortmund and Bayern are the scariest possible opponents at the moment. I think we could possibly beat Man utd.
Having had time to reflect not only on last nights game but the whole group in general, I dont care who we get. We have come out runners up in a very hard group and if you look at the head to head with Barcelona, we matched them over the two games. The four group matches dont lie and the best two teams always go through.
However, with the knockout home and away fixtures, anything can happen and we dont have that away game losing mentality. One other point is in the past we have suffered a lot of bad decisions against us. I feel our luck has changed and our never die attitude in front of the best support means it is not us who worry about who we get, it’s who wants to face us????
I agree with you entirely Andy. I think a lot of fans, the length and breadth of Europe will be waking this morning and saying, “Hope we don’t get the hoops”,(in various languages!). It’s now up to Lenny and the bhoys to prove them right! A big thank you to all at Celtic park, for the ride so far. HH
Man U would be my preference. Watching the way they defended set-pieces against Reading at the weekend they look very vulnerable at back. Wanyama, Samaras & co. would definitely cause problems over 2 legs!
I fancy man utd, having an average season so far and their dedence has been shaky and think we cd take them over 2 legs
Whoever we get will be a huge challenge, but we can rise to any challenge. Thank you to an often unsung hero, but he is and has always been my hero – Mr Samaras. He has proved himself time and time again and is my captain courageous. My colleagues in school are now beginning to see what I have always seen in big Sammi. He is absolutely invaluable to the team. HH.
Aye fair play to big Sami – he’s been smashing (not just dinner plates) this season. Need to play well again but with our new and improved away form we have a chance to KO anyone…… Barca clearly see us as their biggest threats to win the competition after resting so many players last night