McDonald braced for Celtic exodus

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The Scottish champions were drawn against Barca in the last 16 of the competition - the first match of which is at Celtic Park on February 20, with the return game a fortnight later in Spain. Rangers took more than 20,000 fans to Spain when they faced the Catalans in the group stages of the competition last month and McDonald believes a good result at Parkhead will have the Celtic fans reaching for their passports.

He said: "If we were to get a great result, I couldn't begin to imagine how many Celtic fans would make the journey over to Barcelona. There would be an invasion, much like when Rangers went to Barcelona - maybe bigger."

McDonald added: "We've got a while now to get our heads around playing the first leg at home.

"We're fully aware of the job at hand but I believe it works in our favour to try to get something at home first. Then we will have something to live and die for. We can go over there and protect it with all our will.

"That would certainly suit us more than having to chase the game at home if the draw was the other way around and we had got a bad result in Barcelona.

Walter Smith's side were criticised in some quarters for their defensive tactics in the goalless draw against Barcelona at Ibrox, a fortnight before the two side's met in Catalonia. Barca star Lionel Messi was quoted as saying Rangers had played "anti-football" in Glasgow.

McDonald is adamant Celtic will approach their home match with the Catalan giants in a much more positive way.

He said: "The manager has said from the word go in the Champions League campaign, especially at home, that we need to play attacking football.

"Our fans would not let us play anything but that, they would not stand for us playing 11 behind the ball and just sitting there. If we did that, I think they would go crazy - I think there would be an invasion. They pay good money to come and watch us play attacking football."