Neil Lennon’s joy as Celtic land Champions League glamour date with Barcelona

NEIL Lennon declared himself “delighted” as Celtic’s return to the Uefa Champions League group stages was given added lustre when yesterday’s draw in Monaco produced a glamorous pool headed by favourites Barcelona and completed by Benfica and Spartak Moscow.

Celtic won through to the lucrative group stages for the first time since the 2007-8 season with a comprehensive 4-0 aggregate win over Swedish side Helsingborgs, and Lennon watched the draw along with the players and the media at the club’s Lennoxtown training complex. “I am delighted,” he said. “It is fantastic to be involved with the draw, very exciting and to be in a group with Barcelona – tough but real glamour games for the club – and the other two are huge clubs in their respective countries.

“We are familiar with all three clubs. We have recent history against all three of those teams. I remember under Gordon [Strachan] we played Barcelona and Benfica and we knocked out Moscow in a play-off. It’s a tough, tough group, but all the teams play football, so it should be 
attractive to watch.”

On another satisfying day for the Scottish champions, Lennon was close to completing a deal for Nigerian central defender 
Efe Ambrose, who has been playing for Ashdod in the Israeli league.

It also emerged that Celtic’s Champions League qualification will provide a £1 million boost to the Clydesdale Bank Premier League as a whole.

The SPL confirmed that “solidarity funding” from Uefa would increase to £1.5m with the sum shared equally among the 12 clubs.

The league said the bonus would “partly offset the financial damage caused to the league by the loss of Rangers from 
the SPL”.