The Italian giants are languishing in 11th place in Serie A and stumbled to a 1-1 home draw with Catania on Sunday.

In contrast Celtic returned to the top of the Scottish Premier League at the weekend with a 3-0 win over Dundee United.

However, Ancelotti shrugged off his side's current slump and remains confident of a victory to follow up their 2-1 win over Benfica in Milan last month.

He said: "We are not at the top of our form at the moment but every game is different and we hope that we will be able to turn it around against Celtic.

"We're prepared for the game, we are coming to play at a beautiful stadium and we want to do our best.

"It's normal that we will be criticised when we are not at our best but we will work hard to get better game by game."

One player facing his former employers will be Massimo Donati, who joined Gordon Strachan's side in the summer in a deal worth around $7.5m.

The 26-year-old midfielder has been critical of Ancelotti and claims he did not get a fair chance at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza.

But the former Parma and Juventus boss was keen not to enter into a war of words and accepted Donati will be trying to prove a point.

He said: "Donati is a very good player and he basically wanted more time on the pitch than on the bench and to play regularly in the Champions League.

"I am very happy that he is getting what he wanted with a team as good as Celtic. It's only natural that he is looking forward to the game but I'm sure all the Celtic players will be."

The visitors will come up against a Celtic side without main striker Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink who picked up an injury at the weekend and that is likely to land Scott McDonald and Chris Killen a huge chance.

Ancelotti acknowledged that the Dutchman's absence is a boost for his side but insists he will now have to be aware of the other threats.

He said: "I don't know either of them that well but I have followed them in the past couple of games and they will be dangerous. We will have to keep an eye on them."