“We showed in the last game against Real Betis away from home, against a quality team, that we gave a good account of ourselves and played some great football. We dominated parts of the game, we didn’t get the result, but I thought it was a fantastic performance.

“We knew we had that performance in us and that’s what we need to do tomorrow night. We have to make sure that we play our football as we have been, and be really positive about our intent, and try to take it to a good opponent.”

Leverkusen had made a strong start to their Bundesliga challenge and have proven themselves to be Champions League quality while also being touted as Group G favourites, but the manager feels it is a tough group with a healthy choice of favourites.

He said: “They are a side with a great pedigree, they’ve got outstanding individual players and within their set-up they are a fairly settled team with not a lot of changes from last year.

“They are a quality team, they are one of the best teams in Europe. They probably see themselves as a Champions League team.

“In terms of favourites in the group, I think Betis are a very good team, Ferencvaros certainly gave Leverkusen a contest in their first game, but there’s no doubt they are a quality opponent and a quality challenge for us.

'We want to take it to them and they can certainly take it to us, so we are going to get tested and hopefully it’s a great game of football for our supporters to get excited about, and hopefully we play our part in it.'

Whether Callum McGregor returns to play a part and get some minutes in against Leverkusen remains to be seen, but the manager has been delighted with keeper Joe Hart’s reaction and input in taking up the temporary captaincy.

The manager said: “I think he’s been great. He’s obviously a very experienced guy. He’s new to the club and he’s been really respectful of the fact that he’s just come to this football club, but he also understood when we brought him in that one of the reasons was his experience.

“The teams we are putting out at the moment are still very young in terms of experience, and in terms of age in many respects, so having someone like Joe who has played at the highest level certainly helps and I think he is doing a good job.”

Manager believes power of Paradise could land Celtic key points