Guardiola understudy has much to prove against Celtic

Europa League: Celtic v Sporting Braga

Venue: Celtic Park, Glasgow Date: Thursday, 2 October Kick-off: 17:45 BST

Coverage: Listen on BBC Radio Scotland Extra & Sounds, live text commentary on the BBC Sport website & app

Much like Genk last week against Rangers, Braga arrive in Glasgow in somewhat beleaguered mood despite an encouraging start to their Europa League campaign.

The matchday one victory over Feyenoord has not been sufficient to appease supporters who watched their side lose 1-0 at home to lowly Nacional of Madeira on Sunday to slump to seventh in the Liga Portugal table on the back of a five-game winless domestic run.

That led to criticism of the players' attitude from new head coach Carlos Vicens, who himself has had to endure fan displeasure, most recently the dreaded waving of the white handkerchiefs often seen in Iberian stands when adversity strikes.

Pep Guardiola's former assistant is finding life as the main man pretty unforgiving as a positive start to the season has gradually gone downhill and he could do with a big result at Celtic Park.

Vicens' rise owes much to the apprenticeship served at Manchester City, where the Mallorcan worked his way from a work experience role to a first full-time position assisting with the under-12s and 13s, eventually impressing sufficiently as under-18 coach to earn the call from Guardiola in 2021.

After four years working under arguably the best coach in the modern game, Vicens was keen to strike out on his own and Braga, having parted company with Carlos Carvalhal, came calling.

It was a tentative start under the new boss, a 0-0 draw away to Levski Sofia in his opening game in the second qualifying round of the Europa League, followed by a narrow extra-time victory over the Bulgarians at home.

But a 4-1 aggregate win over Cluj and two 3-0 league victories to start the season seemed to augur well for Braga under Vicens.

The play-off round was as comfortable as it could possibly have been against Celtic's former adversaries, Lincoln Red Imps of Gibraltar, but sandwiched in between two emphatic results came the first signs of a stumble as they drew at home to AVS (which remains the bottom club's only point of the season).

Braga have not won in the four league games since, losing both at home, and that has drawn the ire of supporters.

Such is the context in which they come to Celtic Park, where they lost on their only previous visit in August 2010 on Champions League qualifying duty, though Celtic's 2-1 second-leg win was not enough to overturn a 3-0 first-leg deficit.

A third-placed finish in that season's Champions League group stage paved the way for their best European campaign as they dropped into the Europa League and marched all the way to the final, only to be beaten by Celtic's 2003 conquerors, Porto.

Their best performance since then was halted by Rangers at the quarter-final stage in 2022 en route to the final themselves.

Last season, wins over Maccabi Tel Aviv, Hoffenheim and Lazio were not enough to take them through to the knockout phase as they finished 25th, agonisingly just a goal behind Fenerbahce, who went on to lose to Rangers.

Interestingly, they picked up just a point on their travels (at Elfsborg), losing away to Olympiacos, Roma and Union St Gilloise as well as at home to Bodo/Glimt.

Whether this season's squad is any better prepared to succeed remains to be seen.

They spent big on Spanish striker Pau Victor from Barcelona (nearly £10.5m) and young Ivory Coast midfielder Mario Dorgeles from Nordsjaelland (£9.6m), but Victor has yet to shine and Dorgeles may miss the game, having not featured in the past five.

The game will mark the return to Celtic of Gustaf Lagerbielke, the centre-half who left for Portugal in the summer. He played just 10 times under Brendan Rodgers after signing in 2023 but is a virtual ever present for his new club and will be hoping to keep his old team-mates at bay when the action begins on Thursday evening.