Matt O'Riley has unshakeable Celtic Champions League belief as star looks for 'ruthless' Atletico showing

Matt O'Riley believes a ruthless Celtic can stun Atletico Madrid and get off the Champions League mark.

Boss Brendan Rodgers also says the showdown against the Spanish giants offers his side a great chance to put their first points on the board. Celtic have lost their opening two Group E matches to Feyenoord and Lazio. However, the midfield star and manager are convinced there has been enough encouragement from those performances in defeat to provide confidence they can halt Diego Simeone’s top-class La Liga outfit.

O’Riley believes Celtic can do the damage and said: “Yeah, definitely. If we play well, take our chances and believe we can do it, anything is possible. We have seen that in Champions League games in the past. I think performance is definitely there, it’s just a matter of being ruthless in both boxes, to be honest. The performances have warranted wins. We’ve said that before, but I think we have got good reason to believe we can win games. So we’ll see how we go.”

Rodgers knows the size of the task in hand, but also has belief as he draws up a strategy for his team to take into the showpiece occasion. He said: “We are playing a club that is one of the best in the world and one of the top teams.

“We want to be able to take on the best teams in the world. We don’t have to be the best, but we certainly want to take them on. The players will go into it with great confidence. It will be an amazing atmosphere and we will devise a plan.

“I think the players have been unfortunate that they haven’t picked up something in the first two games. The performance levels have been good against Feyenoord and Lazio and now we have a great chance to get our first points on the board.”

O’Riley would love to get that elusive