Stokes determined to break his Euro duck against Barca

Anthony Stokes is targeting his first-ever Champions League goal in the Nou Camp this week.

But the Celtic striker knows he’ll have to be at his most lethal if he’s to find the back of the net in Barcelona’s back yard.

Stokes has finally been given the opportunity to prove his worth in Europe this season after warming the bench during previous Champions League campaigns.

He’s started four of Celtic’s five group encounters this term but has failed to score and the Hoops now head to Spain in the knowledge it will be their last outing in Europe this season.

Stokes, however, is still determined to get off and running by netting a landmark goal on Wednesday night.

“Of course, I still want to score,” said the Republic of Ireland internationalist.

“This is my first campaign and I’ve enjoyed it. I think come the end of the competition I will be a better player for the experience.

“But, of course, as a striker you want to be scoring in every game but especially in the big games in the important competitions.”

In fairness, it’s not as though Stokes has been passing up plenty of chances in front of goal in the competition.

The one thing he has discovered, though, is you need to be ready to take any opportunities that come your way at the highest level.

He said: “I haven’t really had much in the way of chances but you’ve got to try to take those half-chances.

“I think in Milan I had one where I’ve gone in, the boy’s dived in, and it was a half chance. You don’t get two or three clear-cut chances like you do in the SPL, so you have to be clinical, and we haven’t been that this year.

“You need strikers chipping in with goals and we just haven’t scored enough. If you look at our chances created and converted last season, it must have been about 90%. We scored at set-pieces.

“This year we maybe haven’t had the break of the ball or a little bit of luck, but basically we haven’t converted our chances.

“I think in the games we’ve played

good football and done reasonably well. It’s as simple as that. I think the football’s been good and we’ve been in every game.”

Stokes, however, was left on the bench for the decisive home defeat at the hands of AC Milan which ended any hopes Neil Lennon had of securing European football beyond Christmas.

He admits there wasn’t an explanation as to why he wasn’t selected as Georgios Samaras started up front.

The striker said: “The manager didn’t explain it. He has the luxury that he doesn’t need to explain it to me. He probably just wanted to change it about.

“Derk Boerrigter had come on in the previous game and done really well so you play the players in form. He wanted to mix it up and there was no problem.

“But Wednesday night is a massive game. Barcelona are one of the best teams in the world if not THE best.”