Callum McGregor made a welcome return to the Celtic starting XI on Thursday night, but it was a disappointing 90 minutes for the Hoops skipper and his team-mates as they lost 4-0 to Bayer Leverkusen on matchday two of the Europa League.

The German side scored two goals in either half to record what was a convincing victory, while Celtic created as many chances as their opponents in the course of the game without being able to convert any of them into goals.

Now Ange Postecoglou’s side must bounce back on Sunday when they face Aberdeen at Pittodrie, and McGregor knows it’s an important game for the team.

Speaking to Celtic TV after the game, the Celtic captain said: “We’ll probably get a bit of stick after this game so it’s important that we stick together and bounce back.

'The only way to bounce back is to get a win and a good performance at the weekend, so we’ll be fully focused on doing that.'

“We’re hugely disappointed in terms of the (Leverkusen) scoreline. To lose four goals in any game is not good enough, especially at Celtic Park, so it was a hard night and one that we need to learn from.

“You see that big spells of the game were played in our attacking half and that’s credit to the way we want to play but, by the same token, you need to be switched on when you lose the ball and, as a team we have to defend better, and that’s obviously where we were caused problems.

“We knew they were a good counter-attacking team and once they opened their legs it was very difficult to recover from there.”

McGregor returned to the team after missing the previous four games through injury, and is aiming to lead the team out again on Sunday against Aberdeen.

“I’m delighted to be back on the grass and back in the team, and trying to help the boys,” he said.

“It’s been a hard couple of weeks – nobody likes to be sitting out on the side so, on a positive note, it was good to be back out there.”

McGregor: We need to stick together and get back to winning ways