Celtic striker Scott McDonald is desperate for a win tonight against Villarreal - to stave off the threat of losing a future guaranteed ticket to the Champions League group stages.

Tonight's game against the Spaniards is a meaningless affair in terms of Celtic's European dreams this season, but with Scotland's co-efficient taking a battering, three points would help the Old Firm in future European campaigns.

"It is vital to try and do everything we can now to keep the guaranteed Champions League place," said the striker.

The danger is that by season 2010-2011, not this season but next, that the SPL winners will have to go through the lottery of a qualifying round to reach the group stages of the Champions League and it is a nightmare scenario that McDonald would love to avoid.

The winners of this season's SPL will have an invite to join the elite in Europe's most prestigious tournament next season, but it could be for the final time.

And given the experience Rangers suffered this season, McDonald knows only full well what dangers lurk in the qualifying rounds.

"It's not something as players that we have talked about, it won't be mentioned in the dressing room or anything like that because our minds will just be concentrated on trying to win the game, as it always is," he continued.

"But the bigger picture is important too. We want to win the league every single year and the fact is that when you get that title it is special because it marks the achievements of a full season, but it is also a fantastic bonus knowing that you are guaranteed six big Champions League games.

"To lose that would be difficult because we know that it can be really tough to get through the qualifiers.

"Celtic lost to Artmedia Bratislava a few years back and had to go through a whole season with no European football, while Rangers suffered a similar fate this season against Kaunus.

"And when you start to drop down the pecking order it can be even harder to qualify because you face more games and sometimes against very difficult opposition.

"You can't forget, either, that most of the qualifying games for the Champions League come at the very beginning of the season and when you have hardly played a competitive match."

A win tonight would also boost Celtic's finances by £520,000.