Tuesday 27th September 2016.

For Celtic supporters, somewhat starved of the excitement of the biggest games in the last few years since the demotion of their Glasgow rivals, tomorrow night’s European encounter with the English Premier League top-dogs Manchester City is truly a mouthwatering prospect.

Of course, with Celtic’s Champions League opponents Manchester City ripping up everything placed in front of them this season under the guidance of new manager Pep Guardiola, it’s hard to see beyond a comfortable away win for the English team.

The bookies don’t get much wrong and the best you can get for a Man City victory at the time of writing is 3-1 on. Indeed, Celtic’s most recent foray into the big time, a 7-0 thrashing at the hands of Barcelona in the Nou Camp a fortnight ago does little to suggest they will put up much of a fight tomorrow.

The arguments in favour of an upset seem pretty thin too with commentators struggling to point to more than the recent humbling of Rangers in this month’s Old Firm encounter and last weekend’s 6-1 win over Kilmarnock. To rely on these results as a sound barometer would also be to conveniently ignore that they were either side of a rather unimpressive 2-2 draw with Inverness Caledonian Thistle, currently residing in the bottom half of an ordinary Scottish Premiership table.

But for all this weight of circumstantial evidence, to write off the Scottish champions completely would be to ignore the impact of a home tie at the famous Celtic Park.

It might sound cliché but the truth is if you haven’t been part of a Parkhead crowd for a Glasgow derby or a European night you can only imagine the effect of 60,000 passionate Celtic fans driving on their team.

Celtic do have European pedigree after beating Italian giants Inter Milan in the 1967 European Cup Final in Lisbon. The spirit of this achievement gave birth to the cup winning team’s nickname the Lisbon Lions.

If this sounds like sentiment and ancient history, Celtic fans would remind you of a Wednesday night in November 2012 when 55,000 fans inspired their idols to an equally unexpected 2-1 win over the mighty Barcelona, a team largely built and coached by Guardiola.

To be fair, the Celtic of four years ago was stronger than the current team who have enjoyed relatively easy pickings in the absence of their strongest domestic opposition since then. But the goosebumps will return as the ‘Champions League’ anthem rings out across Paradise around quarter to eight tomorrow night and reputations and form books will count for little for an hour and a half.