It must feel like Christmas come early for Celtic fans waking up on Monday morning.
Fresh from battering rivals Rangers to go five points clear the Premiership summit already, next up is a return to the glitz and glamour of the Champions League group stage. Captain Callum McGregor's wish for Real Madrid was duly granted in last month's draw and it's Los Blancos who are first up for Ange Postecoglou 's side.
It promises to be the most raucous European night at Celtic Park for many a year as last season's winners roll into Glasgow. The 14-times champions have Ballon D'Or favourite Karim Benzema in their ranks in addition to a raft of world class talent. But are Toni Kroos, Luka Modric and Co in for a rude awakening under the Parkhead lights? There's a feeling this Celtic side are building to something special but this is a test beyond anything they've faced up to so far under Postecoglou. Here, Record Sport Online looks at five burning issues ahead of the big one.
Man City's blueprint
Real and Manchester City served up perhaps the most entertaining two legs of football of recent times in last season's Champions League and although Pep Guardiola's side spectacularly collapsed at the death, their first-leg approach to dealing with Los Blancos had them in control of the match for long periods. Of course, it's a tough ask for Celtic to replicate exactly what City's galaxy of stars did to Real but much of what they did defensively aligns with how Postecoglou likes his team to play.
How successful Celtic are in trying to disrupt their illustrious rivals will be key to getting anything from the game, and there are similarities in how they pressed Rangers on Saturday and how City pressed Real back in April. At Celtic Park this weekend, Matt O'Riley stepped forward alongside Giorgos Giakoumakis to cut off a ball into midfield and essentially allowed Rangers to make the first pass wide. This was the cue for Celtic to press, with O'Riley closing down James Sands and Liel Abada cutting off Borna Barisic.
City adopted a similar tactic against Ancelotti's side, with Kevin de Bruyne stepping alongside Gabriel Jesus and allowing Madrid to make the first pass before squeezing up and attempting to force them long. Guardiola's side managed to stop Luka Modric and Toni Kroos from influencing proceedings for large parts of the 90 minutes and also caused havoc for the midfield pair defensively. The absence of Casemiro on the night, and City's rotation involving the likes of De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, Riyad Mahrez and inverted full-back Oleksandr Zinchenko gave the veteran duo far too much ground to cover.
Aurelien Tchouameni will likely be in alongside Kroos and Modric to prevent this happening but Celtic will look to use the rotation from the likes of O'Riley and Reo Hatate, plus wide men Jota and Liel Abada (or Daizen Maeda?) to pull Madrid's midfielders around.
The Vinicius factor
It's no secret Postecoglou intends to set his team up to get at Madrid and this will likely involve the high press which has smothered so many teams domestically. It's been described as a high risk approach but the reality is even when Premiership sides are able to beat Celtic's press they often don't have enough quality to punish them.
It goes without saying that won't be the case on Tuesday. Again returning to last term's classic at the Etihad, City effectively pressed Madrid for much of the 90 minutes but it only took one opportunity for Vinicius Jr to escape through and score.
It's an intriguing challenge for Celtic. Domestic mistakes are rarely punished but against a world class side their system does become a high risk tactic with very little margin for error. Tthey will likely make adjustments for this, however.
Postecoglou's frequent vows to play "our football" is sometimes construed as the manager planning to throw all caution to the wind with no regard for how Madrid might hurt them. This, of course, won't quite be the case and it'll be fascinating to see how the Aussie boss adapts to this challenge.
Abada or Maeda?
On a night where Celtic will undoubtedly have to suffer at times, it's on occasion which looks tailor-made for the selfless Maeda. The Japanese forward's relentless energy and outright refusal to stop running would be a major asset against one of the world's top teams. It's easy to picture the Celtic Park crowd reacting to Maeda chasing down a lost cause or making life uncomfortable for Benzema, helping to further ratchet up what's going to be a deafening atmosphere.
There's just one issue, however. How do you justify dropping Liel Abada on current form? The 20-year-old Israeli had to wait for his chance at the start of this season but he's turned in two electric displays over the past fortnight, bagging a hat-trick in the rout of Dundee United before helping himself to another two against Rangers.
It would seem immensely unfair on the young winger to put him back on the bench for what would be the biggest night of his career thus far. But these are the tough decisions facing Postecoglou and there's certainly a case to be made for both players.
Marginal gains
Postecoglou has proven he'll leave no stone unturned in his approach to the game and this has even extended to the Celtic Park ball boys. As was strikingly evident on Saturday, they've clearly been instructed to help get the ball back in play as quickly as possible.
The running joke from the 4-0 drubbing is that the ball boys were more switched on than the Rangers players – albeit it's a gag that's rather difficult to argue with. Those instructions are likely to remain the same on Tuesday night and it could come as somewhat of a shock to Madrid, if they're not alert to it.
Going away in Europe, Ancelotti's players are probably more used to teams trying to slow the game down – not speed it up. It'll all be part of a plan to stir Celtic Park into a frenzy but it feels unlikely Madrid will be as unprepared for it as their hapless Ibrox rivals.
Gauging progress
When Celtic entered the 2017/18 group stage off the back of an undefeated domestic campaign, there was cautious optimism they could go toe-to-toe with the superstars of Paris Saint-Germain on opening night. Celtic fans won't need reminding what happened next but it's a cautionary note as to how domination on the home front can count for little when Europe's super-rich elite come calling.
But there's also a vibrancy, energy and all-round quality to this Celtic side that arguably even Brendan Rodgers' Invincibles couldn't quite cultivate. Whether that holds true or not for Ange's entertainers remains to be seen but it would be a surprise to see this group go down with a whimper.
Yes, the step-up in quality is massive and last season's European results were poor, but this is a Celtic team which has taken huge strides in the past 12 months. Just how far have they come? It's difficult to predict, except for the fact it's highly unlikely to be in any way dull.
