Celtic's Champions League fate to be decided after frantic 11-day spell However, Barcelona are now guaranteed a top-seed place in the draw for the knockout stage and, with a three-point lead over Atletico Madrid at the top of La Liga and a home game against their nearest contenders on Dec 16, it is certain that they will not be at full strength against Benfica. Barca's pleasure at having achieved their first aim in the Champions League was conveyed by Cesc Fabregas in a tweet which read: "Great match in Moscow, we already are in the second round!" His midfield colleague, Andres Iniesta, reacted in similar fashion when he said: "Having the last game at home with a spot in the next round secured is important." Lennon, meanwhile, has to cope with the loss of significant players and the fatigue of others. The biggest difficulty in respect of the Spartak game will be the absence of Celtic's principal midfielders, Scott Brown and Victor Wanyama. Brown's hip injury has not prevented him playing intermittently for Celtic and Scotland this season but he has reached a stage where the possibility of more serious damage cannot be ignored and, as his manager admitted, the Hoops captain will now undergo surgery and is unlikely to play again until the start of February. Wanyama, meanwhile, is suspended for the Spartak match, whilst Emilio Izaguirre is out with a hamstring injury which is likely to keep him sidelined until shortly before Christmas. Charlie Mulgrew, who was replaced by Beram Kayal at half-time in Lisbon, is one of the regular starters who is being monitored for fatigue, as is Georgios Samaras. Celtic have SPL fixtures at home to Caley Thistle on Saturday and away to Hearts next Wednesday, followed by a William Hill Scottish Cup fourth-round tie against Arbroath on Dec 1 and the visit of Spartak four days later. It is certain that Lennon will use squad players against Arbroath, but necessity will force him to shuffle his deck for the league games, too. "We will have to rotate some players," said the manager. You can see that some of our regulars are feeling the demands that have been made of them and, since we have a few players coming back into contention, we'll sit down and think how to use everyone to best advantage. Lennon conceded that Benfica now have their Champions League destiny in their own hands, albeit that victory in the Camp Nou over even a weakened Barca cannot be considered a given. We know what the situation is but we cannot influence anybody else's game. We just have to concentrate on what we can do for ourselves and that means beating Spartak who, as we know, are a strong team despite their position in the group. Then we'll see if that is good enough.