THOMAS Rogne today insisted Celtic can play better than they did in their 2-0 win over Helsingborgs in Sweden last week.

Goals from Kris Commons and Georgios Samaras gave the Hoops an impressive away win in the first leg of their Champions League play-off matches.

However, the Scottish champions spent long spells on the back foot in the first half and had keeper Fraser Forster to thank for keeping them ahead.

Rogne, who should return to Neil Lennon's starting line-up in the second leg at Parkhead tomorrow night, feels there is room for improvement.

He said: "We've played better games. Fraser kept us in it, especially in the first half. I wouldn't say we were lucky, but the result could have been different, and we could have scored more at the end as well.

"I know we can play better than what we did, but the result was massive. We can step up our game and hopefully we can do that tomorrow.

"We are confident because we got a good result away from home which was important, but it's not finished as 2-0 is a difficult lead.

"They have nothing to lose and they will want to come here and play their football.

"They showed last week they are a good team, so it will be a tough game but we're all looking forward to it.

"We believe in ourselves, our team and group and believe we can get a good result tomorrow."

Without Rangers to challenge them for the SPL, Rogne knows how vital qualifying for the group stage is to Celtic.

He admitted: "At the beginning of the season that was the biggest thing. That's what we trained for, why we went to Europe in pre-season and didn't travel so far, and did the preparation we did. Celtic deserve to be in the Champions League."