Sviatchenko wants frightening Celtic

Celtic defender Erik Sviatchenko hopes Wednesday’s Champions League opponents Borussia Monchengladbach struggle to cope with the intimidating atmosphere at Celtic Park.

The Hoops produced arguably their best performance of the season so far last time out in Europe when they held Manchester City to a 3-3 draw in front of their own fans.

The Premier League club had problems dealing with the vociferous supporters and Sviatchenko is hoping for a similar atmosphere against Gladbach.

The Bundesliga side are bottom of Group C after losing their first two matches against Manchester City and Barcelona, while they have stumbled out of the blocks in Germany, winning one of the last four league matches.

In contrast, Celtic have been excellent in the Scottish Premiership, dropping points just once in eight matches to move four points clear of Aberdeen at the top of the table.

Sviatchenko, who has been key to Celtic’s recent good performances, is looking forward to another big European night in Glasgow and is eager for the fans to play their part.

The Dane wants Gladbach to be scared to play at Celtic Park and has predicted they may crumble under the pressure.

“Players come here, teams come here – they need to be frightened,” said Sviatchenko. “We’ll do our best to create that intensity towards the game tomorrow.

“To draw a parallel to the City game, you could see that they were struggling even though they were really, really big stars. [Monchengladbach] are a really good team, they have caused Barcelona problems.

“It’s a team that have been really good the last couple of years in Germany and have done really well last year in this tournament.”

Celtic are 2/1 to win Wednesday’s clash, while Gladbach are 27/20 and the draw is 27/10.