CELTIC plan to strike fast and early when they kick off their Europa League campaign against Salzburg here tonight.

The Hoops are entering matchday one of six in Group D, and are up against the section favourites and top seeds.

But the intention is to make their mark early, prove their credentials - and avoid playing catch-up in the race for a place in the knockout round next year.

Keeper Craig Gordon accepts there will still be a long way to go after tonight's game against the Austrian champions, and that nothing will be decided after this 90 minutes. But, while this is very different from the straight knockout format they have been involved in so far this season, the determination to win will be exactly the same.

The 31-year-old said: "We had to approach the last European tie we played, against Maribor, differently, because of the fact away goals counted in the play-offs. Now we are into the group stage, but we still have to look at this as a one-off game, and we have to try to get something from it.

"There's none of this trying to get one away goal and, if we concede a couple, that's okay, because we can bring them back to Celtic Park and cancel that out.

"That's not our approach. The way we see it, we have to get something out of this match.

"We don't want to be playing catch up from the very start of the group. We want to be competitive all the way through.

"And, although we know this is a difficult game to start with, we also know we have got quality in our team and we believe we have got goals in us to cause them a problem."

Gordon still recoils at the memory of how many chances were spurned when they drew 1-1 in Maribor.

Such profligacy would be fatal against a Salzburg side who have no problems finding the net with 31 in their first eight league games.

He said: "We should have had the Maribor tie finished before the second leg.

"We could have been two or three up over there, but didn't take our chances.

"That made the second leg a lot more nervy, and we ended up conceding a goal which, ultimately, cost us our place in the Champions League.

"That's still disappointing. But, hopefully, we can use that experience to kick on and get a good start to the group stage."

The addition of Stefan Scepovic to lead the line since the Hoops crashed out of the play-offs is another reason for optimism in Gordon's eyes.

But he warned: "This is the time we have to get together and perform, not only in Europe, but domestically, and get to the top of the league."