Celtic lost their opening game of the Europa League campaign by a 3-1 scoreline against Ferencvaros. Obviously, that was a major blow for the Hoops. And it means the pressure is on Martin O'Neill's side to produce results in their upcoming matches in the competition if they want to get past the group phase.

That means that they need to look for a win against Benfica in their own backyard. Of course, that is easier said than done.

Even a draw away in Portugal would have to be considered a good result for Celtic, even if does completely satisfy a large portion of the fanbase.

Leading up to the game, the club also announced that tickets for the club's next two home matches, against Besiktas and Marseille, were now on general sale to all supporters. It is not something that was received well by the fans though.

A lot of Celtic fans seem to have grown disillusioned with the club's apparent lack of ambition when it comes to European competitions.

One wrote on the ticketing announcement: "The board and the manager don’t care about Europe, why should fans part with money for it?"

Another added: "What’s the point if we are told we are not good enough to compete at this level?"

A third fan wrote: "Board and manager are not interested in Europe. Will give it a miss!!"

The hope was that the club would use a three-season run in the Champions League to establish themselves in Europe's elite competition.

Instead, they have found themselves right back in the Europa League once the automatic qualification spot for the Scottish champions went away.

They had a glorious chance of ending their streak of failing to get through the qualification phase for the Champions League this time around when they won the first leg of the play-off 3-0 against LASK and then took an early lead in the second leg away in Austria.

It all fell apart after that. After leading the tie 4-0 with less than an hour to go, Celtic managed to lose the second leg 5-1 and get knocked out of the qualification phase again.

For many fans, that might have been the final straw when it came to their hopes of seeing Celtic make any meaningful progress in Europe. And it is not hard to understand why.

The only way to win over the fans would be to produce good performances and results in the Europa League this season, and make a deep run in the competition. Let's see if the Hoops are capable of that.