THERE is a school of thought that Celtic should prioritise the Scottish Premiership title over any European success especially this season as the league winners could be granted automatic access to a potential £40 million windfall. Thankfully nobody seems to have handed Celtic head coach Ange Postecoglou that particular memo. Celtic's fearsome reputation abroad might well belong to a bygone era but the Australian is certainly doing his level best to rebuild it.

The Aussie guided the Glasgow side to a superb Europa League Group G away victory against Ferencvaros that guarantees European football for Celtic beyond Christmas. The talismanic Kyogo netted his 11th goal in 17 appearances with Jota and winger Liel Abada also on target as Celtic ran out deserved 3-2 winners in Budapest.

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Ironically three years before Jock Stein's Celtic reached their European zenith at Lisbon in 1967 and the legend of the Lions was created the club had slumped to their nadir in Budapest of all places.If you know your history and all that then a quick delve into the past will show that Celtic unbelievably blew a 3-0 European Cup-Winners Cup semi-final first leg against MTK Budapest.

A rather naive and gung-ho approach in the away tie saw Celtic amazingly deploy an open style game despite defending a three-goal lead. Somehow they contrived to lose 4-0 and crashed out the tournament at the cruellest stage of all. What happened to Celtic in the Hungarian capital all of 57 years ago remains a seldom spoken about European football catastrophe in the illustrious history of the club.

The Europa League Group G clash against Ferencvaros was never billed as a revenge mission for the class of 1964 or an exorcism of that particular ghost. This time around though there was no chance of history ever repeating itself.

However, there was something quite satisfying for those of a green and white persuasion about the fact that Celtic guaranteed entry into the knockout stages of European football and extended their adventure on foreign shores after Christmas with a hugely significant victory in the Groupama Arena in Budapest.

Celtic did it the hard way as well. Before kick-off, Ange was without Swedish defender Carl Starfelt and midfield lynchpin Tom Rogic due to respective hamstring injuries. Youngster Stephen Welsh was restored to the starting line-up in place of Starfelt for the first time since Celtic had lost 1-0 to this season's nemesis, Livingston, at the Tony Macaroni on September 19 whilst Nir Bitton continued to deputise for Rogic in the engine room. Striker Kyogo Furuhashi also returned to the first-team fold after being controversially rotated during Saturday's frustrating goalless draw against Livingston at Celtic Park.

The Japanese replaced weekend penalty fall-guy Giorgios Giakoumakis as the hitman had to be content with a place on the bench.

Celtic also had no backing inside the stadium after the Glasgow club announced on Wednesday that there would be no access granted to away supporters. That didn't bother Ange's outfit in the slightest.

Confidence levels were high as Celtic had dismissed the Hungarians 2-0 in Glasgow with some aplomb 16 days ago as they resurrected their Group G hopes. It took the visitors just three minutes to make their mark in this one.

 

Liel Abada fed Kyogo and the attacker, sporting a striking new blond mane, took a touch with his right and buried an accurate low shot with his left to mark the 50th goal of Ange's era.

It was a clinical finish from the hitman and it was the 11th straight game away from home in Europe that Celtic had taken the lead. That joy lasted all of eight minutes though when Fradi grabbed a quick-fire equaliser. Abada tried to find David Turnbull with a risky ball when a pass down the line would have been the better option. Ferencvaros popped it around at the edge of the box before Oleksandr Zubkov's cross deflected off Josip Juranovic and spun wickedly over Joe Hart before dropping agonisingly into the Celtic net. It was a stroke of fortune for the hosts but naivety in the extreme from the Israeli winger.

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Jota restored Celtic's lead on 23 minutes with a goal that owed as much to Joe Hart's save from Civic as his quick thinking. He despatched the ball rapidly forward to Callum McGregor who picked out Jota and he danced down the touchline before cutting inside and unleashing a belter that rattled off the inside of the post before nestling into the net.

And it was all over bar the shouting on the hour mark with a goal of stunning quality. Turnbull won the ball back high up the park and picked out skipper McGregor.

McGregor waltzed forward with real purpose and found Kyogo. The hitman then returned the favour to Abada when he split the Ferencvaros defence asunder with a quite exquisite pass which saw the Israeli fire home for the killer third goal.

Ferencvaros rallied and were gifted a second goal four minutes from time when Myrto Uzuni netted to make it 2-3 after Celtic were guilty of overplaying much to the disgust of Joe Hart. It made the last few minutes nervier than they really ought to have been.

It was a rare but well deserved away win in Europe for Celtic. Celtic's standing both domestically and in Europe is slowly but surely starting to grow under Ange. They are showing increasing signs that this Celtic team are improving and really starting to gel.

Some 57 years ago Celtic ignominiously exited the European Cup-Winners Cup in Budapest. Celtic will now go head-to-head against Real Betis to see if they can stay alive in the updated version of European football's second-tier tournament.

A last 32 clash and European football beyond Christmas has suddenly come calling for Ange and company.

Celtic just don't want it to be a Conference call.