Excited Manuel Pellegrini has named Celtic the 'most important team in Scotland' ahead of their Europa League clash with Real Betis.
The Hoops will make an emotional return to Seville - where they broght 80,000 fans to the 2003 UEFA Cup Final loss to Porto - for the opening game of the Europa League group stages when they face the former Manchester City manager's current side.
Betis lost 1-0 to Real Madrid - one of Pellegrini's former clubs - at the weekend in La Liga and the 67-year-old, who won the English title with Manchester City in 2014, is looking forward to facing Celtic in the group stage, along with Ferencvaros and Bayer Leverkusen.
He said: "There are three important teams in our group that we have to face.
" Celtic and Ferencvaros are the most important clubs in Scotland and Hungary and Bayer Leverkusen have been playing in European football for some time.
"So we have to find a way to have a squad that is good enough to compete in La Liga and in the Europa League.
"We haven't stated as we would have wanted and two points out of a possible nine is not good. But this is not the time to panic.
"There is still time to analyse the squad ahead of the transfer deadline and it's possible we have to add to it."
