Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou tells BBC Sportsound: "It's a big game but it's an exciting one and that's what we want to be involved in.

"We understand it's an important night for our season so we have to give a good account of ourselves. I've asked the players to be positive and set a tone for our season.

"There’s no point waiting or hesitating, the opportunity is there tonight for us to do something. It doesn’t matter how ready we feel or how ready we are, the reality is that it is tonight."

On debutant winger Liel Abada, he adds: "He's only had two or three sessions. The advantage is he didn't have to quarantine and has done a pre-season in Israel, so he looks in good condition and it's a massive opportunity to start his Celtic career."

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The 9,000 fans inside the ground are giving it laldy as they belt out the traditional 'You'll Never Walk Alone'...

Midtjylland are one game into their domestic campaign and got off to a losing start at home to Odense last Friday.

The Scottish Premiership does not get up and running until 31 July.

Celtic have had a few warm-up games, with wins over Sheffield Wednesday and Charlton at their Welsh training camp followed by a draw with Bristol City and a sobering home defeat by Preston on Saturday.

These two have never met before but Celtic do have the upper hand against teams from Denmark, winning seven of their 14 European ties and losing just four.

The most recent joust came against Copenhagen in the 2019-20 Europa League when Celtic looked destined for a place in the last 16 after a draw in the Danish capital, but suffered a shock 3-1 defeat on their own turf, conceding twice in the last five minutes.

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Midtjylland have recent memories of Glasgow - and they are not good ones - since they were given short shrift by Rangers in Europa League qualifying in 2019.

Steven Gerrard's men won home and away for a convincing 7-3 aggregate triumph.

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Celtic fell at this stage last year, suffering a surprise 2-1 home defeat to Ferencvaros of Hungary.

In the two previous campaigns, they got to the third qualifying round, losing to AEK Athens and Cluj.

The potential next round opponents this time are PSV Eindhoven or Galatasaray.

Celtic have not been in the group stage of the Champions League since 2017-18 when they finished third behind heavyweights Paris St-Germain and Bayern Munich.

Midtjylland finished as runners-up in the Danish Superliga, just one point behind Brondby, having been runaway champions the season before.

They have only finished outside the top four once since 2010-11 and are therefore European regulars.

Last time out, they finished bottom of a very tough Champions League group behind Liverpool, Ajax and Atalanta.

They beat Ludogorets Razgrad, Young Boys and Slavia Prague to get there - all of whom can be filed under 'no mugs'.

John Hartson
Ex-Celtic striker on Sportsound

Callum McGregor hasn't had much of a rest this summer, having played for Scotland at the Euros.

But that's no big deal for the apparently bionic midfielder, who regularly features at the top end of the most-minutes-played in world football lists.

Last term, he turned out 64 times for club and country. His numbers for the preceding campaigns were 58, 69, 58 and 46. Phew!

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As well as a new manager, Celtic have a new captain, with Callum McGregor taking over from Scott Brown.

The 28-year-old midfielder was the obvious candidate and aims to emulate his old skipper, who is now beginning a new chapter at Aberdeen.

"Scott was hugely successful as club captain here," said McGregor yesterday. "I had the honour to work closely beside him, seen how he operates every day, the way he drives the changing room, the way he drives the club.

"I could have had no better education in that sense. So I just want to follow that as closely as I can and obviously you have to put your own personality on it, your own stamp on it.

"Ultimately it is a new era for the club and I am just desperate to get to work and make it successful."

Tom English
BBC Scotland's chief sports writer on Sportsound

Kristoffer Ajer is in the final year of his Celtic contract and the same applies to Odsonne Edouard, Ryan Christie and Olivier Ntcham. Will all four be offski before the end of August?

Brentford signed midfielder Frank Onyeka from Midtjylland earlier today for around £9m.

The Premier League new boys could soon even that up with a signing from Celtic, since Kristoffer Ajer has reportedly been undergoing a medical with The Bees.

The refusal of a handshake from the world's most expensive player capped an eventful first Champions League start for Anthony Ralston.

Then 18, Ralston rattled Neymar with some tough tackles in a 5-0 defeat to PSG back in September 2017.

He has made just 12 appearances for Celtic since then, including one solitary outing last season, but now finds himself first choice right-back.

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John Collins
Former Celtic assistant manager on Sportsound

Home supporters will know a lot more about Midtjylland defender Erik Sviatchenko since he spent two seasons at Celtic, winning five trophies.

Here he is arriving at the stadium a little earlier.

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St Mirren fans may recognise Anders Dreyer in the Midtjylland line-up. The 25-year-old winger played 10 games or so for the Paisley side in 2019 while on loan from Brighton.

He got one goal for the Buddies but appears to have improved a bit since then as he was the Danish club's second top scorer last term.

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We were told yesterday that new signing Liel Abada was not in the Celtic squad but the 19-year-old Israeli winger is on from the start tonight.

Japan forward Kyogo Furuhashi has also been recruited but will need to quarantine before he starts training with his new team-mates.

Osaze Urhoghide and Liam Shaw have arrived from Sheffield Wednesday and are on the bench, but those two are probably in the 'ones for the future' category.

Yesterday, Ange Postecoglou spoke of the need to hurry along the recruitment process, explaining that his squad is "still very light in areas".

"We probably hesitated a couple of times and could have moved faster on some things," he said.

There will be 9,000 fans inside Celtic Park on this glorious summer's evening.

There was a small crowd in for Saturday's friendly with Preston but this will be the club's first competitive game with supporters since 7 March 2020.

Celtic had hoped for an attendance nearer 18,000 in their 60,000-capacity home, saying they were "disappointed" with the outcome.

These guys were in nice and early and one is on the phone bragging to his jealous pals.

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