The tone for Celts and Levein’s men are no mugs

first went into the club – the first trophy that he won with the Parkhead side and the first senior trophy of his managerial career.

So there is no way that Celtic will want to relinquish it. And Hearts are about as tough a tie as they could have got.

I am full of admiration for Craig Levein and what he has done with the Tynecastle side this season. They have been impressive and deserve their spot at the top of the table.

But through the last couple of performances Celtic have shown that they are coming back into their own groove. They have scored 10 goals in their last two domestic outings and you would like to think that this is the start of a little bit of momentum for them.

have to remember that he is still a young guy but this is the time now when he has to show what he has got.

He will have it in the back of his head that he was able to go and do it against Salzburg over in Austria so the fact he has already scored in the tournament is

The big advantage for Hearts is that not only are they playing just across the road from their home stadium but they don’t have the magnitude of the game that Celtic have on Thursday night. I am sure they’d happily swap that but it does mean that they will be far fresher going into the tie that Celtic could be given their journey home from Germany.

good. But the likes of Edouard know that they need to be able to take any sniff of a chance then the same goes throughout the team.

Tom Rogic and James Forrest were pretty much unplayable at the weekend against Hibs.

Forrest for me is playing out of skin at the minute and the work he does is huge for the strikers – his pace and his final ball mean he is always able to create something and any forward worth his salt should be feeding off that.

We all know what Rogic has got too. He is an elegant player but he will know himself that as Celtic go into games such as this one on Thursday night that he has got to be able to reproduce a performance at the same level as the one against Hibs.

I suspect that Callum McGregor will deputise for Brown if the Celtic captain doesn’t make it and while that is a sensible swap, you also lose something then with McGregor not able to offer you what he does normally in terms of an attacking threat.

This is a game where Celtic desperately want to have something to show for their efforts. They don’t

‘‘ Edouard will have benefitted hugely from two goals