Gary Mackay-Steven has spent his summer waiting for this evening.

Celtic kick off their European assignment tonight with a curtain-opener against Iceland champions FC Stjarnan.

And Ronny Deila’s side is optimistic that it is the first step on an ambitious journey that can lead all the way to the group stage of the lucrative competition.

Mackay-Steven got a taste of European football with Celtic almost immediately after joining the club last January when he featured against Inter Milan in the knockout stages of the Europa League.

The occasion whet his appetite for the prestige and glamour of the Uefa Champions League, but Celtic’s immediate remit is simply trying to reach the promised land of the competition.

The financial rewards for such an achievement are eye-watering - the increased payment system for those who reach that stage of the tournament would mean that Celtic would comfortably bank around £18million from participation in the group stages.

For Mackay-Steven, though, it is all about the chance to feature against the very best.

The winger spent his summer touring New York and Miami, but his thoughts were consumed by the challenge of fulfilling a personal ambition this autumn.

“I think every player wants to test themselves at that level,” he said. "It is a chance to play against the very best teams, the very best players. The atmosphere that night when we played Inter Milan at Celtic Park in the Europa League was amazing.

“It was such an brilliant experience and I know that inside the ground on Champions League nights is just a phenomenal atmosphere.

“They are such special nights. You can only get better by playing against the best and that is what we all want. For the club too it is important that we get into the environment because I think that is where we feel we deserve to be playing our football.

“But the most important thing is that we concentrate on giving our all to get through the qualifying rounds. I think we all know just how massive these games are.

"It is hard because they are more or less the first competitive games of the season for us, but we have all spent the summer adhering to our training programme for the club and physically I think we are in good shape and ready for them.”

Stjarnan have had a difficult time of late in Iceland, with the club winning just four out of their last 11 games.

They are currently sitting in mid-table, but Mackay-Steven is wary of underestimating them.

“We have done a bit of homework on them and we have an idea of how they will come and play,” he said. “I think they might sit quite tight and try to frustrate us, but it is up to us to be patient and just play our own game.

“Ideally we would like to get off to a positive start, but the main thing is that we come out of the game with the right result to take to Iceland next week.”

Nadir Ciftci could be in line to make a start tonight after impressing when he came off the bench to make his Celtic debut on Friday night.

The 23-year-old Turkish forward established an impressive relationship with Mackay-Steven and Stuart Armstrong at Dundee United and Mackay-Steven believes it is possible to continue that at Celtic.

“Nadir is a confident lad but, I think the fact that he made such a positive contribution when he came on at the weekend means that he will have his head up, for sure,” he said.

“I like playing with him because he just brings so much. He is clever, he is skilful, he is quick with the ball at his feet and he can see a pass that often others can’t.

“I know what it is like to come in and be the new lad in the changing room and if I can help him settle in any way I will, but to be honest he is the kind of character who is so upbeat all the time that he will fit in quickly, I think.”

Mackay-Steven netted three goals in three pre-season games and he is keen to weigh in with a contribution in the goal-scoring stakes this term.

“It is always nice to score, but it is the old cliché that so long as the team is winning then it doesn’t matter who is putting the ball in the back of the net,” he said. “But it is always nice to score.

“I hope that over the course of the season it is something I can do regularly because we have so many players who are capable of creating chances.

“The whole way we play is designed to have us in the opposition area as often as possible so it would definitely be nice to get myself on the scoresheet regularly.”