And the Australian is trying to put the carrot of instant qualification out of his mind so the Bhoys are not distracted from that target.

Celtic will qualify for the last 16 tomorrow if they better Shakhtar's 2-0 win over them, and Benfica fail to beat AC Milan.

Gordon Strachan's men face a tough trip to Italy in their final game and a draw at Parkhead would leave the Ukrainians favourites to go through.

"We are obviously very confident, our home form has been fantastic domestically as well as in Europe," McDonald said.

"First and foremost we need to get the three points and not worry about the head-to-head thing.

"It's just vital we get the win first. Shakhtar have got a home game after this and they have also been pretty formidable at home.

"It's not a foregone conclusion they will win that game but they will be strong favourites.

"It's important we go out there and try to get the three points and put ourselves in a good position."

If Celtic do get in a winning position then McDonald is the man most likely to fire them through after hitting his 14th goal of the season in Saturday's 3-0 win over Aberdeen.

"Obviously of late the goals have been flying in," he said. "Every game I go into, especially at Celtic Park, you always get a lot of chances and hopefully that will be the case again.

"I'm raring to go, full of confidence and I couldn't be in better shape."

McDonald expects those chances to continue against Shakhtar despite Celtic's poor performance in Ukraine.

Their opponents were two ahead within eight minutes and came very close to a third.

But McDonald feels victories over Benfica and Milan have banished any self-doubt ahead of the return match.

"We are aware of the mistakes we made over there and we know they have exceptional players, players who can singularly turn a game," the 24-year-old said.

"We have got to be careful of that but we'll look to play attacking football like always at home.

"We take each game on its own merit. They played exceptionally well over there and deserved their win.

"We have gone on now and won two games, hopefully we can keep our home form going then it leaves it all open for the last game.

"It's not about revenge, we don't think like that, we will just play our normal game."