Neil Lennon has urged his players to step up and grab the second chance handed to them tonight. The Hoops take on Atheltico Madrid in the Spanish capital tonight only weeks after exiting the competition after defeat in Switzerland. But a UEFA reprieve sees them back in the group stage as FC Sion continue their fight in courts up and down Europe.
However, Lennon is simply focused on the football and expects his team to relish this opportunity. He said: "It means a lot to be in this competition and I think it means a lot to the supporters."
He continued by stating how much confidence he has in the group of players at his disposal. "We believe we have a very talented group of players who can develop into a very good team if we can keep them all together and this will be part of their development."
He also stressed that he is taking one game at a time in this group and isn't even thinking about progressing to the latter stages. He added: "Qualifying would be nice, but its a top quality group and I'm not looking that far ahead."
Lennon will be without a number of key players, namely Scott Brown who is being saved for Sunday and Anthony Stokes who picked up a knock in training. Daniel Majstorovic is suspended whilst new-signing Badr El-Kaddouri is ineligble.