Martin O'Neill has laid out his aims for the next round of Scottish Premiership fixtures after going into the quarter stage of the season.
Celtic have a four-point lead at the top of the league, leading Rangers despite their only defeat coming against the Gers, and they have won nine of their first 11 outings.
O'Neill's men are the clear favourites to win the title, but there are plenty of roadblocks ahead that Celtic will need to deal with before they get to the point of being confident of defending their crown.
Dundee United held Celtic to a draw on Wednesday night, and amid a relentless schedule that throws up two games per week for four weeks, the Bhoys face a solid-looking Falkirk side away from home on Sunday.
Celtic have not had so much luck in Europe, though, still yet to win after three league phase games, and for O'Neill, that is the main aim, with his side likely having to win against Besiktas at home on Thursday night to realistically stay in the competition.
"Yeah, I think we've done fine, we're leading the league at this minute, a four point gap, which is nothing at all at this stage of the season," said the veteran boss.
"We retrieved that a couple of times last year, bigger leads than that there that we fought back from.
"Domestically we're doing fine, we're trying to get a result or two in European football, it would be nice, but overall I'm really satisfied with the team."
He added: "If it was at all possible to match that, I would be delighted. That's improbable, but it's something that we'd be aiming for."
Things only get more difficult as the season goes on, with injuries, fixture pile-ups and the likes, and Celtic are starting to discover that, looking leggy over their last couple of games, although their injury situation is actually improving on the whole.
A couple of wins in Europe would indeed be nice, but if Celtic don't win on Thursday night, their exit will be a formality and a couple of wins will do nothing to ease frustration from fans.
Celtic were supposed to be a team that competed in the Champions League this season, so if they go four games without a win in the Europa League, it would say a lot about how ambitions have not been met with adequate preparation.
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