Celtic defender Kieran Tierney is aiming progression with the Hoops in Europe this season. The Scottish champions made the Champions League group stage in each of the previous two campaigns under Brendan Rodgers but they have had to settle for the Europa League this time around after failing to qualification for the elite competition through the play-offs.

Despite this, Tierney believes the Hoops have much to improve from the previous year in Europe and he is hoping that the team can provide better performances on the road, he said: “The aim is always progression. We would like to go through of course. The aim is to win all our home games and pick up what we can away.

“We’re looking for an improvement from last year. We came third in the Champions League group but didn’t do ourselves justice away from home, but if we can better that this year then that’s progression. It’s going to be another tough test for us. Every game’s hard home and away and this will be no different. The Europa League is another great tournament. It’s a huge honour to represent Celtic at it as well.”

“Celtic have been pitted against Rosenborg, Red Bull Salzburg and RB Leipzig in their Europa League group “ and they should be familiar with the former whom they have faced regularly in“ European qualification games. Most“recently, the pair faced off during the second qualifying round of the Champions League which the Hoops won by a comfortable 3-1 aggregate and they should fancy their prospects of overcoming them once more.

Besides this, they may have concerns with the other two clubs associated with Red Bull. Salzburg were one of the surprise packages during the previous campaign and they reached all the way to the Europa League semi-final last term where they lost out to Marseille. On the contrary, Leipzig were another casualty to Marseille as they only reached the quarter-finals last season but they have genuine quality within the ranks to reach at least the final-eight once more.