Gordon Strachan tells Celtic to stand up to Atletico school bullies but one 'horrible thing' has him worried

Celtic face Atletico in Spain looking for another positive result against the La Liga high-flyers.

Celtic need to stand up to the bullies on the Champions League playground tonight - even if it means taking a punch on the nose for their troubles.

That's the view of former boss Gordon Strachan who believes Brendan Rodgers' team have a chance of an Atletico upset, as long as they don't cower away against the "masters of the dark arts." The Premiership champions are in Spain looking for a result that would breathe fire into their hopes of European football after Christmas. They're buoyed by a positive result in Glasgow two weeks ago that saw them lead twice and eventually take a 2-2 draw against the La Liga high flyers.

And Strachan reckons if the Hoops can stand up to them and "put their own mark on it" they have every chance of another upset. He told ICE36: "Don’t rush. I don’t think that they need to make any drastic changes to how they would approach this game and, sometimes, if you make too many changes as a manager in terms of tactics or personnel, players get spooked. You don’t want to create doubts in the players’ minds where they start to think that the manager doesn’t trust them to play their normal game – I’ve done that before as a manager in Europe.

"You then realise, actually, if we play our game, on occasions the opponent isn’t that good and that gives everyone even more confidence because you played the game on your terms. It’s like standing up to a bully at school. You have to put your own mark on it - sometimes you’ll have to take a couple of hits."

Celtic mat take further confidence from the fact Atletico suffered a shock defeat to Las Palmas at the weekend, but Strachan sees that the other way and fears they are now a wounded animal who will be out to make things right. He went on: "The horrible thing about this game is that Atletico were beaten at the weekend in La Liga.

"They don’t often lose two games in a row – they will want to respond. They are a team that are masters of the dark arts. Beelzebub! Even at the end of the Celtic match where all their players just walked off – they’re the embodiment of their manager."