Celtic take on Aberdeen today in the Scottish Premiership at Celtic Park in what is almost certainly a must win match for Wilfried Nancy…
Having lost all four of his matches so far since replacing Martin O’Neill who had won six domestic games in a row as interim manager and also beat Feyenoord in Rotterdam in the Europa League, Nancy faces the sack if Jimmy Thelin’s Aberdeen side take anything from today’s game.
We are playing on Sunday this week because Aberdeen were playing in the Conference League, losing 3-0 away to Sparta Prague, so with the travel and Celtic having an extra day’s rest then hopefully we can take advantage this afternoon.
Celtic Team News
No pre-match media conference from the manager this week, although Paulo Bernardo did one on Thursday afternoon. Last week the last 20 words of Nancy’s media conference ahead of the the trip to Tannadice were on team news, confirming Anthony Ralston was fine after taking a knock in the cup final defeat to St Mirren and that Kelechi Iheanacho was out with another hamstring problem.
Nancy will not change from his 3-4-3 formation and while it can look promising every opponent so fare has been able to exploit it’s flaws and this win the matches. Jimmy Thelin will be well aware of what other manager’s have done and will to replicate this afternoon. Meanwhile Nancy has to find a way to take the chances that have been created when his side has been on top in all four matches. Johnny Kenny for instance could have had a hat-trick in the first half against Dundee United on Wednesday night.
Assuming no further injury problems here’s how we think Nancy will go today with his stating XI.
Predicted Celtic Team
Kasper Schmeichel in goals with a back three of Anthony Ralston, Auston Trusty and Kieran Tierney. In midfield the Celtic captain Callum McGregor and Paulo Bernardo will play inside the wing-backs Yang on the right and Daizen Maeda on the left. The two forward midfielders will be Reo Hatate and Are Engels and Shin Yamada will get his chance as centre-forward.
On the Celtic bench today – Sinisalo; Scales, Murray, Donovan; Nygren, McCowan, Kenny and Forrest.
Match Officials
David Dickinson will be the referee today and he will be assisted by Ross Macleod and Ross Nelson. Greg Aitken will be the VAR and his assistant will be Ross Hardie.
Kick-off Time
Celtic v Aberdeen in the Scottish Premiership kicks off at 3pm. By that time we’ll know how the match at Tynecastle between Hearts and theRangers finished. Perhaps a draw would be the best outcome for Celtic followed by a win over Aberdeen.
Where to Watch
It’s the Hearts v theRangers game that’s live on Sky Sports today with Celtic v Aberdeen being available on Celtic TV in Britain and Ireland on a PPV basis. Full details on that available here – Celtic announce PPV offer for game against Aberdeen. Basically it costs £12.99 and you can order from the Celtic FC website.
Host will be Gerry McCulloch and former Celts Peter Grant and Aiden McGeady will be live at Celtic Park with all the big match build-up from 2:30pm. Paul Cuddihy and Simon Donnelly will then describe every kick of the ball from their commentary position high in the Celtic Park gantry.
The match is also available as usual to Celtic TV subscribers based outside of Britain and Ireland.
Sportscene will show highlights on the BBC Scotland channel from 7.15pm this evening with the programme repeated on BBC One Scotland at 11pm. Hopefully Celtic TV will be releasing a Unique Angle video – the first ever under Wilfried Nancy – later this evening or early tomorrow morning.
Not doing a score prediction today, what is the point having got the last four badly wrong? Don’t forget it is the Bhoys Winter Clothing Collection today, with details on what is required and where to drop your donations off shown below.
