SCOTT Brown knows tomorrow night’s (Thursday) Europa League qualifier against Riga will be a test of Celtic’s character and added the highs of last season’s results in the competition will serve as added motivation to reach the group stages.

The Scottish champions arrived in Latvia yesterday (Tuesday) ahead of their Europa League third round qualifier against Riga.

The fixture comes four weeks on from the abrupt end to Celtic’s Champions League qualification campaign but Brown insists Celtic will bounce back from the disappointment when they return to European action against the Latvian champions.

“Every single game isn’t going to be perfect but it’s about how you bounce back,” said the Hoops captain. “We wanted the Champions League but it wasn’t to be.

“Now we need to make sure that we get into the group stages of the Europa League. We need to make sure we win on Thursday and then we can look forward to the next round.

“We had an unbelievable campaign last year where we played Lazio, Rennes and got some great results so we’re looking forward to hopefully getting into the group stages. We know it’s going to be hard and different with it being only one leg. We’ll have to deal with that on the day and make sure we turn up and get a good result.”

It will be another quick turnaround for Neil Lennon’s side after tomorrow night’s game with Hibernian travelling through to Celtic Park on Sunday. The Celtic manager will be hoping his side overcome Riga within the 90 minutes to avoid extra-time ahead of the Hibs test.

Brown said he anticipated a difficult game against Jack Ross’ side and underlined the importance of getting a good result tomorrow to put Celtic in a good position going into the weekend.

“Hibs are a great team and had a good result at the weekend,” said Brown. “They’ve started the season well under Jack. They’ve played really well, playing a 4-4-2 with two strikers who work extremely hard and hold the ball up well. They have a great back four too so we’re looking forward to that challenge. The main thing for us is to get a good result on Thursday night and that’ll set us up well for Sunday.”

Brown: Last season's Euro campaign is motivation to overcome Riga