CELTIC striker Anthony Stokes is not bold - or daft - enough to try to tell Neil Lennon how to do his job.

But should the Hoops boss ask, the forward is more than ready to offer his opinion on how they should approach playing Barcelona when they come to Parkhead on October 1.

He wants to see more of the San Siro spirit and said: "We need to play with a similar style and try and cash in.

"Things didn't go our way in Milan. The way the ball has broken off Emilio Izaguirre for their first goal was really unlucky.

"Maybe, though, we could have done slightly better in the lead up to the shot, but these things happen in football."

Nevertheless, at this level, 'these things' are the difference between taking something, and getting nothing, as Celtic did in Italy.

Stokes was the first to Cristian Zapata when he shaped to shoot for the opening goal eight minutes from time, but was deceived by the defender's initial dummy.

Stokes said: "I was trying to close down space and, because the guy was right-footed, I went in anticipating a shot.

"Then he cut back inside and I thought there might be someone inside to block, but it wasn't to be.

"He gets lucky in the end because the ball is going wide and it isn't a great strike.

"It's part of football and we have to dust ourselves down and get on with it.

"We go out with the attitude in any game to try and win, and we showed in Milan we can also play good football.

"We had good spells of play, particularly in the second half, but we didn't take advantage."

Stokes came closest of all, his free-kick hitting the top of the crossbar just minutes before Milan took the lead.

He said: "It was a decent enough performance, but we missed too many chances.

"Sammy had an effort, I had one in the first half, but the defender got back to block it for a corner. Then I had the free-kick which hit the bar.

"There were other bits and pieces of play we should have done better with, but it was a decent performance and we have to look at that.

"The boys played brilliantly at the back and the graft was there in midfield. Maybe once or twice we let ourselves down from wide areas. But the bottom line is we didn't take our chances."

Lennon went for it by throwing on attacking players when the game was still goalless, and Stokes reckons he should be applauded for it.

"A 0-0 would have been better than 2-0 defeat, but I think we were right to go for the game," he said.