Ange Postecoglou is prepared for the biggest tests of his Celtic career so far.
But he won’t focus on his first Old Firm battle until their Euro fate is sealed on Thursday night.
The Hoops travel to the Netherlands with a 2-0 lead over AZ Alkmaar and are expected to secure qualification for the Europa League group stages on Wednesday night.
Postecoglou will then do battle with Steven Gerrard at Ibrox on Sunday as he gets his first taste of the derby against Rangers.
But it's all eyes on Europe before anyone can even think about taking on the champions.
He said: “We’ve given ourselves an opportunity to have a memorable week.
“You go into these big games with a chance to play our football.
“Thursday is a great one, not just in terms of the game, but for our season.
“We were disappointed to go out of the Champions League but we’d still love to play in the Europa League.
“At this club, we’d love to take on the biggest and best in Europe so it’s a very important game for us and we’ll go there with belief, for sure.”
Postecoglou hopes to have James Forrest and James McCarthy fit for both games after they missed the 6-0 drubbing of Saints on Saturday.
He added Croatian right-back Josip Juranovic to his ranks yesterday after he arrived on a five-year deal from Legia Warsaw.
The Aussie refused to quash reports linking him with a move for Hibs striker Kevin Nisbet but says he wants more new recruits.
And Postecoglou says talks with Ryan Christie about his future are still on-going, with the ball in the Scotland star’s court.
On Nisbet, he said: “That’s in the basket of uncertainty that I don’t really dip my hand into.
“I ain’t quashing or denying or confirming.
“I’m really happy to talk about Josip today because I’d been sitting on the fence with that one – I don’t like sitting on the fence.
“I prefer to talk about the ones we have done. There’s still work we’re doing off the field and hopefully we’ll be able to make more announcements in the next few days.
“I’m really pleased to get Josip in, he’s one we’ve been working on for a while. He’s exactly the type of player and person we want in our dressing-room.
“I’m sure he’ll help us and we’ll keep chipping away to hopefully get ones we’ve been working on.
“Is it all coming together now? I don’t know, that makes it sound like I’m sitting on the sofa and everything is being presented to me.
“A lot of hard work goes into it and there’s still more to do.
“We haven’t finished in that area and I want to bring in at least another couple because we’re going to need them.
“We’ve got through this period really well but we have two really big games coming up.
“And we don’t want to be going into periods like this when we’re relying on just a core group of players.”
Despite hitting St Mirren for six, Postecoglou is convinced that this Celtic team can get even better.
He said: “Today was good, we started really well which was the key for us.
“After a punishing game in midweek, we set out early to put some pressure on.
“We did that, scored our goal, hit the post and had some chances.
“Obviously the red card gave us the opportunity to control the game further and I was pleased that the players didn’t let it peter out.
“It could have been easy at 4-0 at half time.
“We were still working hard and pressing at the end. That is the type of team we want to be so I guess that was the most pleasing thing.”
“It might sound a little bit arrogant to say that we are going to improve after we won 6-0.
“But we are still at the beginning of what we are trying to build here.”
