Celtic skipper Scott Brown excited by prospect of another Europa League run

Celtic skipper Scott Brown insists there is no shortage of excitement about a potential Europa League campaign.

The Hoops suffered a third consecutive failure to reach the Champions League group stage when they lost to Ferencvaros at Parkhead last month.

But they created some memorable nights in the Europa League group stage last season with victories over the likes of Lazio and Rennes, and Brown is determined to get back there.

Celtic's Europa League campaign starts in Latvia on Thursday against Riga, with a trip to face Sarajevo or Buducnost Podgorica in the play-offs awaiting the winners.

Brown, 35, said: "Every single game is not going to be perfect but it's about how you bounce back.

"We have a big game on Thursday and we have to make sure we win and hopefully start looking forward to the next round.

"We had an unbelievable campaign last year playing Lazio and Rennes and had some great results so we are looking forward to hopefully getting into the group stages.

"We know it's going to be hard, it will be different as well being one leg. But we have got to deal with that and we have to make sure we turn up on the night and get a good performance and a good result.

"We have played well in Europe in the past few seasons. We wanted the Champions League but it wasn't meant to be. Now we need to make sure we get into the group stages of the Europa."