Benfica v Celtic: History dictates that anyone associated with Celtic will forever hold the city of Lisbon in high esteem, and the current club captain, Neil Lennon, hopes his team of 2006 can at least go some way towards emulating the Parkhead pioneers when they face Benfica in the Stadium of Light tonight.
The surviving members of Celtic's Lisbon Lions, the side who lifted the European Cup here in 1967, are in Portugal to see if Gordon Strachan's players can achieve their own share of glory by winning away from home in the Champions League for the first time and, in doing so, virtually seal qualification to the last 16 - another feat the club are yet to accomplish in the tournament's current format.
"We all want to aspire to what the Lions achieved," Lennon said yesterday. "This will be an emotional occasion for our fans but we also have a big game to concentrate on. There is a hell of a lot resting on this. We would have to go a long, long way in this competition to compare with the Lisbon Lions and our main objective is to get out of this group."
The Scottish champions hold a five-point advantage over their hosts in Group F after their 3-0 win over Benfica in Glasgow a fortnight ago. Yet their next assignment is a different task altogether against a team who will be bruised by their last-minute defeat to Porto on Saturday.
Celtic have recovered from defeat in their opening group match at Old Trafford and simply avoiding defeat here should guarantee at least Uefa Cup involvement after Christmas.
Lennon puts Celtic's unimpressive recent European record away from Parkhead down to "bad luck, bad performances and bad defending" but views this encounter as the perfect opportunity to redress the balance.
"I don't believe in the law of averages but this is our time now, this is our team," he said. "The next three games will dictate how far we can go. This is a great opportunity for us.
"We have a big game to concentrate on and it cannot come quickly enough for us. What we need is a big performance from every individual, but the character the lads have shown in the last few months has been tremendous."
Strachan rejected any suggestion his side would play for a point. "That's not the kind of thing we practise," said the unusually subdued manager, who is likely to deploy Kenny Miller in the lone-striker role he performs for the Scottish national team, with Shaun Maloney behind him.
"Hopefully we can give the fans some memories of their own to pass on," he added. "We are delighted the Lisbon Lions are here and hopefully we can give them something to be proud about as well."
Benfica's manager, Fernando Santos, is optimistic despite the result in Glasgow and the fact the Lisbon side have picked up only one point from the opening three games. "We can still achieve what we want (qualification)," he said. "I am certain that we will win this game."
Guardian Service
