ODSONNE Edouard is looking forward to next week’s first qualifying round against KR Reykjavik and said he and his team-mates want nothing more than to qualify for Europe’s most prestigious competition, to play against some of world football’s biggest and best players, and to challenge themselves at the highest possible level.

“We want to be playing against the biggest teams in Europe, it’s simple,” Edouard told the Celtic View. “We as players want that, and the manager and coaching staff want that also. It’s been a few years since we played in the Champions League, and that’s where everyone at Celtic wants to be playing football.

"It’s good to play and challenge yourself against the best players in the world and I’m sure that we can qualify for the Champions League this year. We’ve been drawn with KR Reykjavik and that’s a game we want to win.

“It might only have been a pre-season friendly, but it was good to play against a team like Paris Saint-Germain recently. We obviously weren’t too pleased with the score, but it was good from a football point of view and, again, it was good to challenge ourselves. Despite the score, I think there were spells in that match where we showed we can play against one of the best teams in the world.”

Edouard said playing in an empty Celtic Park has been a strange experience, one which has made him appreciate the adoring support of the home crowd even more than before. While keen to always play entertaining football, he reckons there’s a bigger onus now to entertain on the hallowed Paradise pitch for all the fans watching from afar, to keep them excited and raring to go whenever it’s safe to get them back filling the stands.

Until then, the enduring mantra passed down from club captain Scott Brown – focus game-to-game – is more important now for Edouard than ever.

He added: “Playing at Celtic Park with no fans was a strange experience. You can take for granted how much noise the fans make, especially at home, but the thing is, we need to get on with it. It’s the new normal, so, yes, it’s strange, but we need to play football, to entertain and to try to win games. Until it’s safe to get the fans back, we’ll concentrate on entertaining fans who are watching on the TV.

“We can hear the fake crowd noise in the stadium, the same noise the fans get on the TV, but as you’d imagine, it’s not the same thing. We’re too focused on the game, so you don’t really notice the fake noise most of the time. We can’t wait to get the fans back in, though, for sure."

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Celtic View interview: Odsonne sets his sights on Euro qualifer