Champions League winner and pundit Steffen Freund has warned Celtic that RB Leipzig are due to give someone a thrashing in the Champions League.

And he reckons the Premiership champions could be playing against this season's Bundesliga champions-elect when they meet.

Celtic welcome Leipzig to Parkhead this week for their fourth game in the group after an encouraging goalless draw at Atalanta last month.

But they will have bad memories of their last game against a German team after a nightmare 7-1 defeat at Borussia Dortmund.

Leipzig have made an excellent start to their domestic campaign and went into this round of weekend fixtures joint top of the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich.

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But they have made a disastrous start to their Champions League campaign with three defeats in a row. And former Spurs and Borussia Dortmund and Germany Euro 96 winner turned pundit Freund believes they are due a thumping win in Europe.

He said: "In the Champions League, mistakes that you can correct in most Bundesliga games are punished mercilessly.

"RB learned this the hard way against top teams such as Atletico Madrid, Juventus and Liverpool.

"But I certainly wouldn't write them off to qualify.

"They now have an easier game against Celtic and also face Aston Villa and Sturm Graz.

"I think they will not only win games now but win them well.

"The squad has been strong enough domestically to compensate for the absence of Xaver Schlager, David Raum and Xavi Simons.

"One of Marco Rose's great strengths is his good relationships with his players.

"For me, there is no reason, why RB can't go on and challenge for the title this season and even win it. We saw it was possible last season with Bayer Leverkusen."