THE month of August is, without question, always one of the most important periods in Celtic’s season as the Scottish champions battle to secure their place in European competition.

The club suffered a disappointment last week, but the campaign has now switched to a new front, and the Hoops are determined to ensure progress to the group stages of the UEFA Europa League.

To do so, they must see off Swedish champions, AIK, and that will be determined over the next seven days, with the first leg at Celtic Park tonight.

Speaking exclusively to the official match programme, Leigh Griffiths explained that he and his team-mates are focused on ensuring a positive result to take to Stockholm, next week.

“All we can do is go out and try to win our next game,” said the 28-year-old. “We’re hurting as much as the fans, so we want to put that right as quickly as we can. We managed to do that against Dunfermline at the weekend.

“It’s going to be difficult to get through to the group stages of the Europa League but we all want it and we have the quality to get there. We need to make sure we’re focused for the full 90 minutes over the two legs, both in Glasgow and in Stockholm, to make sure we go through.”

Griffiths made clear that Celtic are looking no further than their immediate opponents. AIK haven’t made it this far in European qualification in seven years, so will be desperate to fulfil dreams of their own.

However, the Scottish champions have progressed as far as the knockout stages of the competition for the past two consecutive seasons, so Neil Lennon’s side have experience to draw on for what will be another difficult challenge.

“There’s more added pressure now to get in the Europa League, especially given we’ve progressed from the group stages over the last two seasons,” said Griffiths.

“We got knocked out at the same stage last year, so we have experience at what we’re about to face and we need to make sure we go and grab European football. After that, we’ll look forward to the draw but we need to make sure we get there first and we know how hard that’s going to be.

“I’ve spoken to Kris Ajer and he said that AIK are one of the better teams in Scandinavia. We know at this stage that they’re not going to be any mugs. They’re going to be coming looking to take our place in the Europa League so we need to be fully focused and ready for any challenges that come our way.

“If you get a home game first, you need to establish a lead to take over there and make sure you defend it. You never want to go over there, having lost or conceded an away goal.

“That puts added pressure on the second leg, which already has pressure with it being the deciding game. We can score goals so we’ll be looking to keep a clean sheet and go over there with some sort of lead.”

Read the full and exclusive interview with Leigh Griffiths ONLY in the official match programme. On sale at the game tonight.

Leigh Griffiths: We're going for goals against AIK