WHILE the disappointment of Saturday’s derby defeat remains a palpable one, the Celtic squad are already preparing for their next challenge – a home match against Italian giants, AC Milan, in their opening Europa League group-stage match.

And Neil Lennon’s side are looking to get that campaign off to a positive start with victory over the side currently top of Serie A.

Last season, the Hoops did the double over Italian opposition, beating Lazio home and away in the same stage of the same competition, and that will be the aim again this time around in their encounters with AC Milan.

For Callum McGregor, the game can’t come quick enough as he and his team-mates look to put last weekend behind them.

Speaking after the 2-0 derby defeat, the midfielder said: “When you lose a derby game there are questions asked and we have to face up to that. We did it in December and kicked on from there. We have to take that experience, learn from this and go on a run. We have to take confidence from what happened last time.

“What I would say is that we have to stay calm and we have to stay together. The sooner we can get the fans back into the stadium, the better, as they are a massive help to us.

“We have to keep the faith, trust the team and trust the manager and what we’re doing. We have been here loads of times before and have a load of experience. We are by no means out of it.”

Celtic went into the first derby of the season without James Forrest, Chris Jullien, Odsonne Edouard, Ryan Christie, Nir Bitton and Hatem Elhamed, and their absence was a challenge for the Celtic manager in selecting his side, with Albian Ajeti also having just returned to training that week following his injury.

And while the Celtic boss and his players know they could and should have still done better on the day, McGregor knows that a Celtic squad back to full strength can push on again.

“Sometimes when you are missing those key players then, subconsciously, you do have that little doubt that shouldn’t be there,” he said, “but we all have to accept the responsibility as a team when we don’t play well.

“We need to put our foot to the floor and the good thing is we have a massive game against AC Milan this week to get up and running again.”

McGregor: We'll use our experience to get back on track