I'm the Bhoy for the job, insists McDonald

On his European debut last month, the former Motherwell striker set up Paul Hartley for his goal in the 1-1 draw against Spartak Moscow in the Luzhniki Stadium in the first leg of the third qualifying round.

In the return game at Celtic Park, McDonald opened the scoring in the 1-1 draw against the Russians, with Gordon Strachan's men dramatically making it in to the group stages on penalties.

The Australia international, who helped the Parkhead side go top of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League with a 5-0 win over Inverness Caledonian Thistle on Saturday, said: "It was fantastic to set one up and score one against Moscow.

"When you come to a big club like this there are question marks against you.

"People ask 'Can he do at that level?' and when I signed I don't think anyone thought I'd be playing up front and leading the line with Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink.

"So it's been fantastic. The gaffer showed a lot of faith in me and I've repaid that.

"I'm just continuing to work hard and hopefully it will all turn out well for us."

McDonald's quickly-established status as a first team regular is all the more impressive given that he started the season with a two-game SPL ban left over from his time at Fir Park.

He said: "Obviously I had a difficult start being suspended for the first two games.

"I really thought that was going to put me behind the eight ball but fortunately enough for me, we got an injury and I was put straight in to the European game (in Moscow) and I've never looked back since.

"But I have to make sure I continue getting into that starting 11."

Celtic go looking for their first Champions League victory away from Parkhead against a side which beat them 3-0 in Ukraine in the group stages three seasons ago.

However, McDonald is not one for looking at the past.

He said: "We've got to be confident because we can play, there's no doubt about that.

"So if we can go into the game and play the way we can then there's no reason why we can't even win.

"I'm sure we will go there with a positive mentality and play some nice football.

"None of the boys think about what happened three years ago because none of us were playing.

"The first game we played away this season in Moscow was a tough, tough place to go, a difficult surface and we got a result.

"That's got to give you a lot of confidence going into the tie and there's a lot of similarities.

"It's a four and a half hour journey and conditions will probably be similar.

"It holds us in good stead because when we get there we know what we're going in to."