Lineker: There may not be a better time for Celtic to be playing Barcelona

The good news, though, is that having lost that league game 2-1 there may not be a better time for Celtic to take on the Catalan giants.

That’s the view anyway of Gary Lineker, the one-time Barca striker who now fronts BT Sport’s coverage of the Champions League.

Read more: Lineker: Don't shut out teams like Celtic from the Champions League

Lineker knows that bringing back the likes of Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Luis Suarez will make his old team far stronger than the one handed its first defeat of the season on Saturday.

But the former England striker also reveals he is not someone who subscribes to the theory that a team is always at its most dangerous on the back of a loss. Instead, he thinks that if Barcelona are perhaps feeling slightly unsure of themselves after being beaten at home by a newly-promoted side then Celtic should be looking to take full advantage.

Read more: Derek Rae: Barca focus on themselves but Celtic must seize their opportunities

Lineker said: “It’s always good to go to a team after they’ve lost a match, rather than after they’ve won a match.

"Confidence plays a big part in football, even with the great teams like Barcelona. The wounded animal theory is one I don’t believe in.

"I think you’re much better going to face a team that’s a little bit out of form, a little bit rusty after a few players have been away on international duty, then taking on one that’s bang in-form and scoring half a dozen goals in each game. That still won’t make it easy but if there is a good time to play Barcelona it’s when they’re not firing. That’s just common sense.”

While Lineker is happy to talk up Celtic’s chances of pulling off a shock in the Nou Camp, he is less confident of them making it out of a group that also includes Manchester City and Borussia Moenchengladbach.

He added: “I think Celtic have been unlucky and lucky. They are unlucky in the sense that the group looks almost impregnable, really difficult for them to get through against that kind of opposition.

"But at the same time there are massively exciting games for Celtic’s fans to look forward to.

"Big nights at Celtic Park always produce a sensational atmosphere. If you’re going to get a tough group then at least get one with exciting opposition and they’ve got that here. In terms of getting through it’s a long shot. But long shots happen every now and again.

“As we know in football if you’re well organised, get your team together and have a little bit of good fortune, you can sometimes sneak a result away from home. To do it on a consistent basis to get through to the knockout stage is a lot harder. I could sit here and say they’ve got a reasonable chance but in my honest opinion it would be an unbelievable performance were Celtic to get through.

"I’m sure even the most diehard Celtic fan would recognise they’ve been given a tough ordeal with this draw.”

Lineker also felt that Celtic would do well to keep the Barcelona crowd quiet, believing many of their fans are more like opera goes in this country!

He added: “There will be a far better atmosphere when Celtic play at home than in the Nou Camp.

"In the Nou Camp, while there’s a massive crowd, 100,000 – or 120,000 in my day – they wait to be entertained, they don’t have that kind of ferocious support singing songs like they do back here.

“It is different – except when they play Real Madrid, which is unbelievable. But in the other games, they might applaud, they are quite a wealthy crowd, all socios, all members. They are more like the kind of people who might go to the opera in this country. The stadium is massive and it is always full. But the atmosphere is not always as amazing as it certainly would be back here.”

Lineker has been impressed with the form of Moussa Dembele and revealed that his former club Spurs had also been keen on landing Saturday’s Old Firm hero. “Dembele has adapted quickly, a lot of clubs were looking at him last season. Tottenham were interested in him for a while and he ended up going to Celtic and obviously got his hat-trick at the weekend as well.

"Brendan Rodgers knows the Premier League, he knows the one or two players who can he can lift from there and who can perform well in Scotland. But this is the stage for players to show they can do it at a bigger and better level – and there’s no bigger or better level than the Champions League.”

-BT Sport is the only place to watch all four major football competitions in one place, with exclusively live coverage of the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and the Emirates FA Cup. Watch Leicester versus Club Brugge in the UEFA Champions League exclusively live on BT Sport 2 from 7pm tomorrow.