BIRAM Kayal insists Celtic will travel to the Camp Nou believing they can "do a job" and ultimately qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League.
The 24-year-old Israeli internationalist said the side will fly out this morning with confidence after achieving four points so far in their Champions League campaign and solidifying their lead at the top of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League with a 5-0 victory at St Mirren Park on Saturday.
The midfielder played his first full match since returning from injury and staked a strong claim for selection for the match tomorrow night.
He said after the rout of Danny Lennon's side: "It will be a different game in the Champions League but we're looking forward to it. We'll also do the job in the Camp Nou."
Kayal added: "The team has a lot of confidence now and we always believe we can do something everywhere. Barcelona are the best team in the world but we're going there believing we can do something."
Kayal claimed he would not be intimidated by the quality of the opposition.
"It is a good feeling to play against the best players in the world – Iniesta, Xavi, Messi. It is a good chance for me and everyone here to prove we are at this level," he said.
The midfielder had a bruising experience when he played for Maccabi Haifa in the group stages in the 2009/10 Champions League; the Israeli side losing all six matches against Bayern Munich, Bordeaux and Juventus without scoring.
But Kayal exuded confidence about his side's prospects, whatever happens in the Camp Nou.
"Of course we believe we can get through," he said of the group stages that started with a home draw against Benfica and continued with an away victory at Spartak Moscow. "We have proved that and we have a lot of confidence in the team that we can do something in the Champions League."
Neil Lennon, who watched Barcelona win 5-4 over Deportivo La Coruna on Saturday, will almost certainly have Georgios Samaras, Scott Brown and James Forrest available for selection after missing Saturday's match.
Kelvin Wilson was taken off with a calf strain at half-time against St Mirren and will be assessed today. The biggest doubt is Kris Commons, who has a hamstring strain.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article