Scotland factor to help Celtic?

Scotland's victories over France in their Euro 2008 qualification campaign will boost Celtic for their Champions League Group D opener at Shakhtar Donetsk.

This is according to the boss of Gordon Strachan's men's opponents Mircea Lucescu, who saw the Ukraine lose ground in the race to book their place in next summer's European Championship finals, falling eight points behind Alex McLeish's Tartan Army.

Lucescu said: "The result in Paris has helped the Scottish teams playing in the Champions League. I wanted Scotland to lose there! Celtic come here on a high because it was a great result for every player in Scotland.

"I know the effect that it has on players when they come back from their national team as either winners or losers. It's completely different and it's very difficult to work with them.

"I didn't see the France versus Scotland game because Ukraine and Romania were playing at the same time but it is a big problem because Ukraine lost to Italy and we have had to try and gee the players up."

With Lucescu being handed a £40 million transfer kitty to bring in the likes of Brazilians Willian and Ilsinho this summer, Strachan believes the cash-rich Ukraine club are ahead of his Glasgow giants.

The Scottish champions have never won on their travels in the Champions League and Strachan reflected: "We are punching above our weight. With money in and money out, we spent £2 million this summer.

"I'm not complaining about that, those are the facts. We are constrained about the way we are run as a business while Shakhtar are a club who have got mega-money."

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