Daniel Stendel wants Hearts to have a go at Celtic on Wednesday

Hearts manager Daniel Stendel will not change his attacking philosophy at Celtic Park because he believes his team can upset the Premiership champions.

Wednesday night's match pits bottom of the league against top and Stendel insists Hearts will go to Glasgow without fear to continue their intense, high-pressing gameplan.

The German is not daunted by the fact the Edinburgh club have not won a league fixture at Parkhead since April 2007. He feels taking the game to Celtic is the best approach rather than trying to defend for 90 minutes.

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"Look at the expectations," he said. "You follow the scores on a Saturday and look for the Celtic game: Nil-nil, 1-0 Celtic, 2-0 Celtic. In the end, it is always a Celtic win because every team expects to have no chance. We do expect to have a chance and we want to play our style against Celtic.

"Sometimes it is different when we play other teams like St Johnstone or Kilmarnock. They used some bad situations in our concentration. Against Celtic, we know we cannot take one step back or we will have no hope, so I think that will be good for the focus of my players."

Stendel stopped short of saying teams believe they are beaten before kick-off away at Celtic. "I hope not but when you hope Celtic don’t score then you can be hoping for a long, long time," he continued.

"It’s difficult when you are only defending and hoping you get one or two chances. Every team would like to win but a lot of times teams just don’t want to lose. We want to try to win."

Hearts may be without centre-back John Souttar again as he continues recovering from an ankle knock. Whoever plays in central defence must rise to the challenge against Celtic striker Odsonne Edouard, who has 24 goals in 37 games this season.

"It’s a good contest for everyone on the pitch to say: ‘Against me he does not score. Against us he does not score,'" said Stendel.

"Everyone on the pitch needs to have the feeling that they are not alone. When it’s one-against-one, then maybe we are not the better team but if we can make it every time 11 v 11, I think we are better.

"This is a chance for us. Expectations are normally not so high and in our situation we must use every game to get points. The chance is not as high as in other fixtures but the game starts 0-0 and I want us to go for three points.

"I have had the question ‘is this game more important than that game?’ In our situation we cannot say things like that. We have tough games in the next 14 days and we need points wherever we can get them - even against Celtic away from home."

A 2-1 defeat of Rangers at Tynecastle Park last month offers evidence that, when Stendel's team clicks, they are capable of beating anyone.

"We need some special days," he admitted. "However, when we are concentrated and have the courage to do what we want, then we have a real chance. If not, then you just go to Glasgow, look at the stadium and go home with nothing. That cannot be our mentality.

"We know we are playing against the best team in Scotland, with a very good offence, but we have shown before that we can win against Rangers, so why not Celtic?"

Souttar will be touch-and-go for Wednesday, while Aaron Hickey is likely to miss out and Toby Sibbick remains sidelined by illness.