Over these past few weeks, there has been plenty of talk at Celtic about how the club are much stronger this season and in a much better position to make an impact in the Champions League.
Buoyed by big-money signings like Adam Idah and Arne Engels, the noise from Parkhead has been resoundingly positive with regards to competing at Europe’s top table again.
Just last weekend, Brendan Rodgers spoke of the confidence flowing through the squad after reeling off five wins from five at the start of the new Premiership season.
Vowing to go on the attack against Slovan Bratislava on Wednesday night and take the game by the scruff of the neck, he clearly sees this as the ideal chance to start the tournament with a bang.
However, the time for talking is over. It’s now time for Celtic to stand and deliver - and prove they can walk the walk.
In the revised format of this year’s Champions League, they couldn’t have hand-picked a more favourable draw.
Rodgers needs to start getting results at top level in Europe
Paulo Bernardo is put through his paces before Slovan Bratislava clash
Bernardo makes an appearance at the Celtic Champions League press conference
When the draw was made last month, there was no Real Madrid or Manchester City for the Scottish champions.
Nor was there a Bayern Munich, a Barcelona or a Paris Saint-Germain. In this most unforgiving arena, Celtic dodged pretty much all of the big hitters.
Instead, they are now facing up to the far more favourable proposition of Bratislava, Dinamo Zagreb, Young Boys, Club Brugge and the likes.
In terms of the calibre of those teams, there’s a valid argument that it represents more of a Europa League draw than Champions League.
Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig and Aston Villa will be a step up, as will current Europa League holders Atalanta.
But there can be no doubt that the draw hands Celtic a fighting chance of actually being competitive, rather than just being swatted aside as an irrelevance.
For Rodgers, that’s the key in all of this. If Celtic are to have a successful season, they *must* demonstrate tangible progress on the continental stage.
They are already odds-on favourites to win a domestic Treble. Yet what Celtic fans crave more than anything right now is a decent run in Europe.
This Champions League campaign represents the proving grounds for Rodgers. Celtic don’t pay him top dollar simply to mop up trophy after trophy in Scotland.
They pay him to take the club forward on the biggest platform - and that’s something he has yet to show he can do.
Throughout his time in charge of Liverpool and Celtic, Rodgers has won just three of 24 games as a manager in the Champions League.
It’s a dismal record. He talks a good game and is clearly a talented manager, but the Champions League has yet to see the best of him as a coach.
Kasper Schmeichel is relishing making a Champions League debut in Celtic colours
Paulo Bernardo shares a joke with his team-mates at Lennoxtown
Daizen Maeda will be a key man for Celtic when they face the Slovakians
Celtic went 15 games without a win in the Champions League, prior to the win over Feyenoord in Glasgow last December.
With that monkey finally off their back, it’s time for them to kick on and show they can string some results together to tee-up a chance of reaching the knockout stage.
If they can do that, it could be a really special season. If they fail in the Champions League, and trot out the same old guff about missing chances, the season will be a failure in the grand scheme of things.
The club didn’t splurge big money on Engels and Idah simply to win in Scotland. They signed these players to make inroads in Europe.
You can also throw likes of Nicolas Kuhn and Auston Trusty into that equation, two players who weren’t part of the Champions League squad last year.
The atmosphere at Celtic Park will be an assault on the senses. It always is on these Champions League nights.
But, once the talking stops, it will be on Celtic to deliver a performance befitting of the occasion.