Celtic manager Gordon Strachan insists his side have a "realistic" chance of beating Barcelona to reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

The Scottish champions were drawn against the Catalans in the last 16 of the tournament, with the first game in Glasgow on February 20th followed by the return in Spain a fortnight later.

The bookmakers have Celtic, who have yet to win a match away from home in the competition, as rank outsiders for the tournament but Strachan believes they can negotiate at least one more round.

Ahead of tomorrow's visit of Hibernian in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League, he said: "It's fantastic to think that we are in the last 16. We might be outsiders at 100/1 or whatever but just to be there is fantastic.

"Although we say that, we want to beat them, we really want to beat them and that is realistic, it can be done. We've shown that, when we are at our best, we can beat anybody.

"We know about our away form and we will try and rectify that but as long as you give it a good shot in the home game, you never know what can happen after that."

Strachan revealed he interrupted training to pass on the news of the draw to his players.

He said: "The guys were getting a bit edgy at training when the news was filtering through to one or two of them. So we stopped training and let everyone know to save any distraction.

"Once we told the players, they were excited and training was good. We wanted something different. Most of us have never locked horns with Barcelona in a competitive match so it's a good draw."

After appearing at the San Siro in the group stages, Celtic striker Scott McDonald admitted his footballing dreams were coming to fruition with the prospect of a trip to the Nou Camp.

The Australia international, who has scored 16 goals since arriving from Motherwell in the summer, was as confident as his manager of springing a last-16 surprise.

He said: "When I came to Celtic, I wanted to play in great stadiums and against great teams. In AC Milan and Barcelona, I believe I'm doing that.

"It's a fantastic draw. No matter who we would have got, it would have been hard. Barcelona have some mighty players but I'm sure they will be less pleased than us about the draw.

"Few teams would want to come to Celtic Park. We got to the last 16 last year and the boys held their own. We were unlucky to go out to one goal against the team that went on to win it.

"So Barcelona know they will have a tough time against us. We are not going to give an inch and I'm sure we will rise to the occasion."