Neil Lennon is desperate to make Parkhead a European fortress again as Celtic prepare to welcome Cluj back to Glasgow.
The Romanians became the third Continental team to win in the East End in just eight months when they knocked Lennon’s men out of the Champions League last month, following in the footsteps of RB Salzburg and Valencia.
Lennon knows his players will have to perform well at home if they are to have any chance of progressing to the last 32 of the Europa League.
He hopes, with the backing of a noisy crowd, he can make Parkhead a venue that other teams start to fear once more.
“We’ve got to try to get that feeling back again,” said the Hoops gaffer.
“We need to press the restart button and make our home form as formidable as it once was. It’s not beyond us to do that.
“Cluj are a good side. They’ve been underestimated by a lot of people. But they got a great result against Lazio in the last round of games.
“If we are to proceed through the group, it’s important to win your home games. I’m looking forward to another big European game under the lights. It’s something we can all savour.
“We know what our incentives and targets are. Qualification is what we want, while maintaining our domestic form at the same time. At a club like this, it’s always important to have European football and if we can stay in beyond Christmas, then you just never know where it could take you.”
Cluj shocked Parkhead by winning 4-3 on their previous visit and Lennon thinks it ought to give his players extra incentive to put things right.
“The game takes care of itself in terms of motivation,” he admitted.
“There’s maybe a wee extra bit of an edge there for the players with what happened previously.
“It’s a chance to rectify a few things that maybe went wrong that night. Some of the goals we lost were freakish.
“We handed them a couple of goals at a really important time. And we haven’t shown signs of doing that in games before or after. Maybe it just wasn’t our night and we have to accept that. Since then the reaction has been spot on.
“We’ve started the group with a really good performance in Rennes. Now we need to follow that up with another one and a win.”
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