BEFORE Celtic’s Europa League group kicked off, most neutrals would probably have had Lazio as the likely winners of the section, with Celtic and Stade Rennais fighting it out for second place and Cluj picking up the wooden spoon, but the first round of fixtures has shown that the group is wide open.

Leaving aside the shock result in Romania where the Italian giants came a cropper, Celtic’s result in France and perhaps even more so, their all-round performance, will have Neil Lennon confident about their chances of going through.

I suspect that the Celtic manager will in fact be a little bit disappointed not to have won in Rennes, because his players were so comfortable. But for Kristoffer Ajer’s uncharacteristic lapse to concede the penalty, Celtic looked really assured defensively and their concentration levels were great.

Added to that, they were a real threat going forward, and I think they might have surprised their opponents with just how good a team they were.

All that will count for nothing mind you if Cluj turn them over again at Celtic Park next week, but my feeling is that Celtic will be out for revenge against Dan Petrescu’s team and will be looking to settle a score.

Over and above that though, Celtic are just in a much better place now than they were when Cluj first came to Glasgow, particularly when it comes to the defence with the likes of Boli Bolingoli and Christopher Jullien getting up to speed now, neither of whom featured in the first tie.

They are no mugs, but I think Celtic will be too strong and will put themselves in a really good position early on in this group.