The Scottish champions fell to a second-half goal from a free-kick by the Villarreal captain, Marcos Senna, a moment that put a hideous blemish on a performance that was otherwise pleasing to the eye and, with a little luck, would have allowed them to leave El Madrigal Stadium with at least the point that would have enhanced their prospects of eventual survival in Group E.

Widespread expectations of an embarrassing night by the Mediterranean seemed not to have reached the ears of the Celtic players, who spent much of an endlessly intriguing match coping quite competently with the Spanish league leaders.

The waves of attacks from the team known as Yellow Submarine did not materialise as early as anticipated, as a consequence of which the Scottish champions were able to create for themselves the time and space in which to establish what could almost be described as a relaxed rhythm.

Of course, there would be numerous occasions on which the relative comfort would be replaced by alarm, but Strachan's selection and deployment had clearly given his team an opportunity to demonstrate their versatility, with several players appearing to occupy several different roles through their movement around the field.

Nor did the confines of a stadium that seems to have been designed specifically to generate an intimidating atmosphere appear to have the desired effect, as Celtic frequently exhibited a maturity and composure of which, more often than not on these European expeditions, they have seemed incapable.

But, having survived one or two scares and reached some promising forward positions of their own through quick counter-thrusting throughout the first half, they could have used a calm finish from Georgios Samaras close to the interval to bring the most gratifying reward of all – the goal that would have given them the lead.

It was from Mark Wilson's long ball out of defence that Diego Godin mistimed his interception, allowing the ball to run to the feet of the towering Greek striker. Samaras loped clear towards Diego Lopez, but, almost upon the advancing goalkeeper, he drove the ball against the latter's right shoulder, from where it bounced to safety. It was a bad miss in the kind of event where such opportunities tend to be genuine rarities. But, with Shunsuke Nakamura clearly given the licence to roam around the midfield, inter-changing with Shaun Maloney and Scott Brown, while Paul Hartley sat in the holding role and Aiden McGeady tried to torment Villarreal on the right, the home side at times appeared to have been ill-prepared for Strachan's strategy.

The pace and mobility the Celtic manager had emphasised on the squad's arrival in Spain on Monday was at the core of his planning, and his team's movement was, for much of the time, a source of bewilderment to their opponents. Not that the latter were exactly rendered peripheral to the proceedings. Indeed, they themselves should have scored when a long ball out of defence allowed Giuseppe Rossi to bolt between Gary Caldwell and Stephen McManus and head towards Artur Boruc. His touch was a little clumsy and Boruc hesitated, when continuing his advance would have allowed him to take possession.

He recovered quickly enough to block Rossi's scoring attempt, but the ball screwed loose to Joseba Llorente, who, unchallenged but with Boruc and McManus re-grouping in front of goal, crudely miskicked the shot from 16 yards high and wide to the Poland goalkeeper's left.

Perhaps surprised – and certainly irritated – by Celtic's energy, commitment and occasional fluency, Villarreal were unsurprisingly in retaliatory mood for much of the second half, spending conspicuously more time in the visitors' half of the field.

But, before they had established a pronounced territorial advantage, they came close to falling behind. Nakamura's perfectly-measured corner kick from the right was met by Caldwell, whose downward header found his defensive partner, McManus, just four yards from goal. Awkwardly positioned, the Celtic captain had to try a back-heel past Lopez and he made a creditable attempt, but the goalkeeper was down quickly enough to smother the ball.

Given the difficulties the Spanish side had experienced in breaching the Celtic defence in the preceding 66 minutes, it was hardly surprising that they should take the lead with a set-piece. The decision by the Hungarian referee, Viktor Kassai, to award the free kick seemed rather harsh as Llorente appeared to dive under a challenge from Hartley.

There was, however, no arguing with the quality of the execution. From around 22 yards, Senna sent a beautifully-controlled drive over the defensive wall and curling far to the right of Boruc. It was the kind of opportunity of which Strachan and every Celtic fan must have dreamed would come the way of Nakamura. The Celtic manager's response was to replace Maloney – he had, by then, faded from the game – with Scott McDonald and, two minutes later, to remove Nakamura and send on Barry Robson.

McDonald had only been on the field three minutes when he almost gave Celtic the equaliser. Lee Naylor's long ball down the left was touched inside on the volley by McGeady to McDonald and the little Aussie took a stride forward before releasing a volley which cleared Diego Lopez, but also dipped just over the bar.

It was almost a typical example of Celtic's seeming inability to conjure up the kind of break Strachan insists is necessary for success on testing assignments such as this.