Dinamo Zagreb boss Nenad Bjelica insisted he was forced to play with no strikers in the Champions League defeat to Borussia Dortmund because of their extreme injury crisis that could hamper them in their next game against Celtic.
Celtic travel to Croatia next in the new-look tournament after claiming a 1-1 draw against Club Brugge this week at Parkhead.
Brendan Rodgers and his players face Dinamo Zagreb next month and they are in a good position to reach the play-off spots, with Celtic in 20th place with eight points after five games.
And Zagreb have major injury concerns with manager Bjelica claiming he has only one fit striker in his squad, as his side went down to a 3-0 defeat at home to Dortmund, where he played with no recognised strikers up front and a 5-5-0 formation.
He said: "We were without Ivan Nevistic, Bruna Petkovic, Petr Sucic, Josip Misic and Arijan Ademi and I had to use an 18-year-old midfielder Branko Pavic.
"We wanted to fight and the boys gave their best, but Dortmund dominated, they have a lot of quality."
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Bjelica added: "I had to play without a striker. I tried to get the most out of what we had and the idea was to threaten on the counter-attack with the five midfielders, but it was difficult against a team who will be in the top eight I think.
"In my coaching career, I have never found myself in such a situation where I have had to play without any strikers. And none of the injured players are close to returning for the weekend.
"We need to win our next home game against Celtic and I still believe we will be in the top 24 who qualifies. Let's not forget we are ahead of Real Madrid and PSG in the table."
