NEIL LENNON believes last season’s UEFA Europa League experience will be important for Celtic when they come up against a well-organised Riga FC side tomorrow night (Thursday).

The Scottish champions have to win the single-leg tie in the Latvian capital if they are to progress to the play-off round and take a step closer to reaching the group stages again.

Neil Lennon’s side enjoyed an excellent run in the group stages last season, with wins against Lazio in Glasgow and Rome helping Celtic top their group. And speaking to the media ahead of tomorrow’s crucial game, the Celtic manager underlined the importance of securing European football and building on the success of last season.

“European football adds a stimulus to your season,” said the manager. “It stimulates the players and supporters, and having European football is important for us as a club.

“We want to try and improve on last year. We had a great group campaign but we must negotiate two very difficult rounds first. That’s our focus at the minute and hopefully, last season will stand us in good stead for these games. This is a one-off tie and we have to get everything right.

“We’re taking this game very seriously. We have great respect for our opponents tomorrow and we’ll have a strong team.”

Riga FC are already well into their season and have won 17 of their 19 league games so far, with 11 clean sheets. Neil Lennon admitted the Latvian side will be difficult adversaries but insisted Celtic are fully aware of the challenge that awaited them.

“The players are well-prepared for it. We’ve won a lot of one-off cup ties domestically. This is different and there’s a change in mentality. We’re away from home against relatively unknown opponents. We’re trying to prepare them as best we can but in terms of whether it’s a one-leg or two-leg tie, they’re well aware of what’s ahead of them.

“We can’t see them live so we’ve gone off the most recent games. They’ve been keeping clean sheets so they’re a tough team to break down. In Mbombo they have a very physical, strong centre-forward. They have good discipline in their shape and, obviously, we’re away from home in Europe so we know that brings its own difficulties.”

The Celtic manager also gave an update on who would be available to play in the game.

“Odsonne is great. He’s trained well the last few days so he’s ready to go. We left Christopher Jullien behind because he’s still struggling with his back. The rest of the squad that was available at the weekend have travelled.”

Neil Lennon: Celts determined to build on last season's Euro run