Celtic will climb the 39 steps on Tuesday - or rather a Portuguese mountain called Benfica - and pray for another miracle like that achieved by the 1967 Lisbon Lions.

The name of the Parkhead club is forever etched in football history as the first British team to win the European Cup. And it was very much a case of ‘local boys made good’ - because every member of the side that beat Inter Milan in that historic final 39 years ago was born within 30 miles of Glasgow.

How things have changed in Scotland from those heady days - and not only for Celtic, who reached the final again in 1970, only to lose 2-1 to Feyenoord after extra time. For no Scottish club has since come within a proverbial mile of repeating the achievement of Jock Stein’s legendary side in the Portuguese capital on May 25, 1967.

While the legacy of that result will live forever in Celtic hearts, there’s now an additional reason why the green-and-white half of the Old Firm are desperate to make an impact on the Champions League.

The names of Manchester United (twice), Liverpool (five times), Nottingham Forest (twice) and Aston Villa have joined Stein’s sizzlers on the list of European champions. And while the quartet from across the border will always be second best to the Hoops in terms of chronology, the fact that the English have won the crown TEN times grates more and more on the Scots’ psyche with every year of tartan failure.

It is no longer sufficient for Hoops fans to wheel out a kick-by-kick account of the golden day when skipper Billy McNeill led those Lisbon Lions to glory. With Rangers now a pale shadow of the team that won the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1972 and the Scottish League title eight times in a row between 1990 and 1997, there seems little hope of an major Ibrox impact on Europe in the foreseeable future.

But Celtic, who even the most ardent Gers fan would admit now have the edge in Old Firm superiority, feel they can once again compete with the best in Europe - despite their defeat by group rivals Manchester United at Old Trafford a few weeks back.

Hoops defender Stephen McManus is particularly encouraged by the run of form which has seen his team soar to new heights in the Scottish Premier League. ‘‘I couldn’t believe some of the things that were being said and written about usduring pre-season,’’ he admitted.

‘‘Everybody had us in a crisis, telling us that we would struggle and that under new manager Paul Le Guen, Rangers were in for a great season. Well, it isn’t working out that way.’’

There’s certainly no doubt that if Celtic beat Benfica in Group F on Tuesday, they’ll become firm favourites to advance with United to the knockout stage following their narrow 1-0 victory over FC Copenhagen last month.

Celtic's fanatical support tends to inspire their heroes on big European occasions, with a host of Hoops players admitting the atmosphere has spurred them to new heights. Indeed, there is little doubt the Parkhead crowd had played a significant part in Celtic's remarkable record of having lost only one of 10 home Champions League game - to Barcelona.

Strachan is hoping Aiden McGeady will recover from the ankle injury that KOd him from yesterday's 4-1 win at Dundee United, in which Japanese superstar Shunsuke Nakamura scored a 14-minute hat-trick.

But victory on Tuesday would take his team five points clear in second place in the group . . . and one step closer to joining Stein, McNeill and the rest of those Lisbon Lions as part of Scottish football folklore.

Footnote: Any Celtic fan will happily give you a minute-by-minute resume of the golden day when Inter Milan were caught sitting on defence in Lisbon. Wilkpedia records the game thus: Alessandro Mazzola opened the scoring for the Italians with a seventh-minute penalty after Jim Craig brought down Renato Cappellini. The Italians then retreated into their famous 11-man defence, failing to win a single corner and forcing Celtic goalkeeper Simpson to make only one save. The Hoops on the other hand had two shots hit the crossbar, and 49 other attempts on goal - 13 of which were saved by goalkeeper Giuliano Sarti, 17 blocked or deflected and 19 off-target.

Craig made amends for his penalty mistake on 63 minutes, when he laid off the ball for Tommy Gemmell to fire home for the Celtic equaliser. With 83 minutes on the clock, Gemmell was allowed space, and played the ball to Bobby Murdoch, whose long-range shot was deflected by Steve Chalmers past Sarti into the net for the winner.