"I don't mind getting beaten. If we go into games frightened of getting beaten then that's a bad recipe for us," he warned.
"We have to be prepared to face the prospect of being beaten if we are to win games.
"If you look at their players, they are the European Cup winning team from two years ago and like all teams they have talent in abundance so if they strike form we might suffer."
Coppell saw his Crystal Palace side lose 9-0 to Liverpool in 1989, but he insists he is no longer haunted by the memory.
"At the time it was the worst thing that had ever happened to me but looking back it was the best as a manager because that was the catalyst for us to go out and buy some top quality players," he explained.
"When we got promoted we thought we could get by on what we had. That 9-0 told myself and Ron Noades that we couldn't.
"We bought some top-quality players, straightaway we got to the cup final that year and the year after that we finished third.
"So although at the time I was embarrassed to walk around South London over time it was probably the best thing that happened to Crystal Palace as a club."
Coppell also recalled how Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish offered to tell the world the result had been a fluke.
"He came out afterwards and said he would write an open letter saying it was just one of those nights when everything they tried went in," he said.
"I thought that was terrific of him. It wasn't patronising of him but I didn't think it was right so he didn't do it but to have had the offer from him was terrific."