CELTIC have taken a confidence boost in defeat to Real Madrid, says David Turnbull, with the team gleaning huge positives from the performance they put on against Carlo Ancelotti’s men.

The midfielder believes that not only did Celtic look at home playing at such a high level, but that they thrived coming up against such a test, and he thinks his side will be all the better for the experience as they look to plot a path to the knockout stages of the Champions League.

“I think we can take positives,” Turnbull said. “I don’t think we looked out of place at any time.

“We had chances, it was just about taking them and keeping the door shut at the other end.

“The boys will be full of confidence. I don’t think it was a bad performance. It is now just about sticking at it and going again.

“One hundred percent we can take confidence from the way we played. We know the other games will be hard as well, but we will go into them and just try to play our own football and get the results we need.

“I feel the performance was very high in the first-half. In the second-half, it wasn’t too bad. But you need to be on it with these teams. They punished us with the chances they got. It is a good marker for us.

“The response at the end of the game in the dressing room was positive. We want to compete against these teams and we did that against Real Madrid in spells. It is now about doing that for the 90 minutes.

“But everybody is fine. We will just dust ourselves down and get on with it.”

There was more to take from the masterclass put on by Real Madrid late on than just a need to be clinical, too.

“Some of the positions they took up in behind us and the patterns of play they had probably worked on were really impressive to watch,” he said.

“The way they pass and move the ball, one and two touch in midfield, as well. Those are the kind of teams you want to come up against. We can learn a lot.”

Meanwhile, tomorrow’s game against Livingston at Celtic Park may offer Turnbull a chance to impress once more, after dropping out of the starting XI when Reo Hatate returned to full fitness.

There may indeed be wholesale changes made by Ange Postecoglou with the second Champions League tie against Shahktar Donetsk in Warsaw coming up on quickly on Wednesday, but Turnbull has faith in the squad depth at his manager’s disposal.

“You saw it the other week,” he said. “We made nine changes in the team and we still got the victory we wanted [at Ross County].

“We know how Livingston play, they are always tough to play against. It is about going into that, playing our own game and getting another three points.”