Scott Brown hit the record books again last week when he overtook Barry Ferguson as the Scottish football with the most European appearances to his name.

Given the season that he is coming off the back of, breaking barriers and penning footnotes is not an entirely new phenomena.

The Celtic captain oversaw the push towards an unbeaten domestic treble last season, but the 31-year-old has been insistent that the achievements of the previous term have already been consigned to the history books.

“That is in the past,” he said. “We can’t live off that. We have got to go again and maintain the levels that we hit last year and try and better them as well. We have brought in a couple of players as well. Here’s hoping that will help our squad and help us in the Champions League.”

And Real Madrid – “I would like a kick at a few of them” – is the team he has yet to face that he would like to in Europe’s premier competition.

Citing Andres Iniesta as the toughest opponent that he ever came up against, Brown is fully cognisant of what it takes to go in and compete at Champions League level.

Celtic will attempt to establish strong foundations this evening against Rosenborg on their qualifying journey and certainly, the exposure to European football is what Brown refers to as being the catalyst for his own development as a player.

The midfielder’s game has matured enormously since his arrival at Celtic a decade ago and the step-up to playing against European opposition was a steep one.

“My first group game in the Champions League for Celtic was against Shakhter Donetsk,” he recalled. “The gaffer came out screaming at me after just 20 minutes when I was pressing the goalie. He told me to get to right midfield and settle down. We were 2-0 down after eight minutes.

“It was a hard one to take but we managed to get through the group in the end, so it was a good lesson.

“The words that came out of Gordon Strachan’s mouth that night were certainly an education for me.

“You learn as you go along. I’m a totally different player now to what I was back then,

“I came to Celtic as an attacking midfielder, just running about and chasing. Gordon slowly got that out of me, got me playing in a proper position which was better for the team than just for myself.

“The better players to play against, the more you raise your own game. You try and maintain the level they play at. It’s great to play against some of the best players in the world, to see how they receive the ball, their passing and awareness.

“The way Iniesta receives the ball, comes deep, drives at you direct, is impressive. His feet are amazing. He runs at you with pace and plays one-twos. It is like you are not even there half the time.

“When he is playing around you think you are getting close to him and then his pace takes him away from you. He has done that against the best players in the world. It shows you what a quality player he is.”

Of the many highlights that stand out for Brown under the bright lights of Celtic Park on a European night, it is the pulsating drama of a shoot-out against Spartak Moscow in 2007 when the club made it through the play-offs and into the group stages of the Champions League.

“Tommy Burns jumping on us after we beat Spartak Moscow in the penalty shoot-out stands out for me,” smiled Brown. “That was great - daft Tam piling on top of us all.

“That night showed how much it means to reach the group stage. It means a lot for Celtic, both from the money point of view and to play on that stage, to hear that music before kick-off.

“I was lucky enough to get to the last 16 as well. We did that with both Neil Lennon and Gordon Strachan. It shows you this club can do it once we put our mind to it. We have got the right man in charge now. We are back playing proper football now. We dominate the ball in the Premiership. We should be trying to take that into European games. We can’t just sit off and let teams attack us for 90 minutes, put Griff or Moussa on to score a worldy and hope we get three points. It is a different day and age now.”

Having featured in 83 European games throughout his career, Brown admitted, that he was privileged to take the record.

“It’s a great honour,” he said. “That’s why I came to Celtic, to play in Europe, to play in the Champions League, to play against the best players in the world. That’s why I’ve stayed here so long.

“There are some great names on the list, like Kenny Dalglish, and they were different times back then. We’ve got six qualifiers now just to get into the Champions League.