You will be hard pushed to find any club in Europe more suited to single-legged Champions League qualifiers than Celtic.

Neil Lennon's men, under the Northern Irishman and their previous regime, have won a staggering 34 domestic cup games in a row. Lifting every piece of silverware available to them since 2016. A truly remarkable statistic and one they can better even still with the latter stages of last season's Scottish Cup still to be contested.

Confidence, then, is sky-high within the Parkhead ranks when cup competitions come around. It's why the manager believes Uefa's decision to have one-off matches for the early Champions League qualifiers might work to his side's advantage. The Covid-19 pandemic has hit hard and forced the governing body to alter its fixture list, with one-legged clashes being played from the preliminary round of qualifiers until the third round. Then it reverts, in the play-offs, to a two-legged affair.

Lennon wants his players to think positive and use their own rich vein of cup form as encouragement. His only concern is not knowing whether the crunch ties will be played at Celtic Park or elsewhere in Europe. "We've had a longer pre-season," Lennon said. "Maybe not as many games as we would normally have leading into the season. We've made a great start domestically and are just waiting to see what the draw brings. With one-legged ties, the more home ties the better. The way things are you don't know what you're going into.

"At least with a home tie there's the familiarity with the protocols and the environment. Ideally we'd want a home draw and it's one leg, so you have to get it all right on the night. The fact that there's no crowd probably negates it a little but we don't know who the opposition is going to be, plastic pitch, what sort of stadium or protocols. It's still very much keeping our minds open and being prepared as best we possibly can. With the one-leg ties we've got to get everything spot on, and if we're away that includes getting travel preparations right and protocols in place.

"You've got to try and look for any sort of positives you can possibly take. I go back to the run we had last year and the run we had in the Europa League was excellent. We're looking to build on that obviously and there's great incentives and rewards at the end of this if we can overcome it. We have to draw on any sort of experience we've had over the last 18 months as a positive. We've been really good in the domestic cups and one-off games."

Celts have been playing their football in Europe's second tier in recent campaigns and the boss is desperate to get back to the big time. His own side, and rivals Rangers, have helped themselves make things slightly easier with some big wins over the past season therefore improving the national coefficient. It means, next season, Scotland will have two clubs in the Champions League should they make it through less qualifying matches. Music to Lennon's ears.

With the Champions League comes the prestige and the big evenings under the Parkhead disco lights. An arena Lennon has loved playing in and coaching in. A platform he wants his top players experiencing. "It's great news, it would mean whoever the champions are - hopefully us - would only need to play three qualifiers instead of four," he added.

"It's a much needed boost for the country and is testament to how well the teams have done in Europe as of late. Obviously you've got to negotiate difficult qualifying rounds and they come early, but we know what the rewards are at the end of it.

"That's two years now we've missed out on it and we'd really love to have it back. And, ideally, you'd want your supporters in to see it as well. But for short term that's not going to be possible. For the players themselves it's an opportunity for them to enhance their careers and enhance the reputation of the club and their own reputation. it would be fantastic to accomplish that. We know how difficult it is and will be but its certainly not beyond us at all. We're looking forward to the challenge.

"It's the blue ribbon event, it's fantastic to play in. It tests you mentally and physically but you feel really good after it, especially when you win. It also makes you a better player, a better coach. We've got that incentive of all our good work to go and win the  championship, can we now go and build on that and complete the job at hand, which would be Champions League qualification."