THE Hoops play at Celtic Park today (Sunday) for the first time in almost a month when they host Angelo Alessio’s Kilmarnock as the champions return to domestic football following their European exploits.

The Rugby Park side didn’t have the best of starts under Antonio Conte’s former assistant at Italy, Juventus and Chelsea, but the Italian coach has turned things around with Kilmarnock now unbeaten in their last four games.

So Celtic manager, Neil Lennon, is well aware of the threat that the Ayrshire side will pose under an Italian coach who has experienced Celtic Park before with Juventus.

The Irishman said: “It’s been a difficult start for him. He’s trying to get his own practices across to the players and you can see they’re starting to take shape.

“They’ve had a couple of great results of late. That takes character from the coach to show that

“I haven’t seen too much of Kilmarnock, but Greg Taylor’s here and can give me a full rundown on what to expect.

“They’ve had a fanatic couple of seasons. I’m sure Angelo will be looking to maintain that. We always have difficult games against Kilmarnock whether it be home or away and I expect Sunday to be no different really.”

He added: “I don’t know how he will approach it. When I took over from Brendan, it was a case of maintaining that. Maybe Angelo wants to put his own stamp on things, maybe he already has.

“Both of us have had tough acts to follow, Steve Clarke worked miracles at Kilmarnock and I don’t imagine the Kilmarnock public will be expecting the same.”

Alessio himself earlier paid respect to Celtic when he said the club are like Juventus in Italy. The Celtic manager said: “That’s a very nice compliment coming from him. He’s got great experience working with Antonio Conte, I learned a lot from my experiences playing against Juventus.

“That 3-5-2 side, was a great style of play and they had good success at Chelsea. He’s decided to come out on his own and I wish him well, but obviously not for Sunday.”

Neil Lennon set for action as Kilmarnock come to Paradise