GREG Taylor said Celtic are hungry to return to winning ways when they begin their UEFA Champions League qualification campaign tomorrow night (Tuesday) against KR Reykjavik.

Celtic will meet the Icelandic champions at Paradise in the first round of Champions League qualification in a single leg tie. It will be Celtic’s first game in nine days since their 1-1 draw away to Kilmarnock, and Taylor said the players were fully focused on starting their European campaign with an impressive performance.

“We've had a few good days of training in, so we’re ready for tomorrow,” said Taylor. “We’re just thinking about ourselves. We dropped points in our last game so we’ll be looking to put on a performance tomorrow night and get into the next round.

“We didn’t create enough in that game but Kilmarnock defended well. We’ve left that behind now and we’re ready for Reykjavik. It’s not ideal being off but we’ve had a good few pre-season games and played two league games so there’re no excuses come tomorrow night.”

The changes to the format of qualification mean the first three rounds will consist of a single leg. If Celtic defeat KR Reykjavik, they will meet either Djurgardens or Ferencvaros next week in the second round.

Taylor said the single leg format of the early rounds means Celtic can't afford any slip-ups if they are to make it to the group stages.

“The onus is on this 90 minutes and you can’t afford to make any mistakes in this game or you’ll be out,” said the Celtic defender. “We know we need to go and get the job done during the 90 minutes tomorrow.

“The gaffer’s made it clear he wants us to qualify and tomorrow’s the first chance to progress. European football is so important for Celtic. On a whole, the European campaign last season was a success. It was disappointing to go out to Copenhagen.

"We had a poor second half in the second leg and that was the only dampener on that European campaign. This is the Champions League qualifiers and that’s what we want to qualify for.”

Taylor: Bhoys aim to return to winning ways against KR Reykjavik