Cluj v Celtic: 'No favours' despite resting five first-team regulars - Neil Lennon

Neil Lennon says his Celtic side will not be doing Cluj "any favours" despite leaving five first-team regulars behind for their Europa League tie.

The Scottish champions have already qualified as Group E winners, while their hosts need a point to secure their place in the last 16.

Lennon said after Sunday's Scottish League Cup final win over Rangers he would be resting some players.

But the manager insisted "we know we have to respect the competition".

In addition to suspended captain Scott Brown, fellow midfielders Callum McGregor, Ryan Christie and Tom Rogic have not travelled to Romania, while goalkeeper Fraser Forster and striker Odsonne Edouard have also remained in Glasgow.

It means 16-year-old winger Karamoko Dembele, 18-year-old midfielder Scott Robertson and 19-year-old striker Grant Savoury have been added to the squad.

"Whether they start is another thing," Lennon said. "As I said before, we are going to use the squad for this game.

"In this sort of busy month, there's some players that need some game time, so it's an ideal situation to give these players some extra motivation to play as well. But we've got a strong team."

Having previously said that forward Vakoun Issouf Bayo would play at some point in Cluj-Napoca, Lennon revealed that goalkeeper Craig Gordon, right-back Moritz Bauer, midfielder Nir Bitton, winger Scott Sinclair and striker Leigh Griffiths "will all feature".

Celtic are looking for a fifth consecutive win in their Europa League group, have won 12 in succession in all competitions and Lennon backed up the words of rival head coach Dan Petrescu, who suggested the Northern Irishman's mentality meant he would be looking to extend that.

"We are here to be competitive and we're here to win and we've had a fantastic campaign and we know we have to respect the competition and we take huge amount of pride with what we've done and we want to finish the campaign on a high if we can," Lennon said.

"We are here to be professional and we're not here to do anyone any favours."

If Celtic win on Thursday and Lazio beat Rennes in France, the Italians will progress at the expense of Cluj and Petrescu suggested that his side's two Group E opponents were capable of "going all the way" to win the Europa League.

"That's a very nice compliment coming from Dan, but he's not getting away with that, that easily," Lennon added. "We have to play a lot of football before we can do that.

"What we are delighted about is that we have topped the group and we look forward to the Europa League in the second half of the season and hopefully we can make inroads in the competition."