Celtic face Livingston this evening as the Scottish Champions return to league duty. Martin O’Neill’s side managed to navigate the Fifth Round of the Scottish Cup after needing extra time to beat Dundee…
Celtic need to get themselves firing as they look to chase down Hearts, who beat Hibernian last night, and theRangers, who play away to Motherwell this evening.
Celtic Team News
Kasper Schmeichel will come back into the side after deputy Viljami Sinisalo stepped between the sticks on Saturday evening. The Dane had to receive an injection to deal with shoulder pain in order to help him through the next period.
In defence, expect Marcelo Saracchi to come in at left back after Kieran Tierney took a couple of sore ones against Dundee. KT has been training but the manager will be conscious about burning out the former Arsenal star. Julian Araujo has been excellent since arriving from Bournemouth and will continue at right back. Auston Trusty and Liam Scales will continue in the central pairing.
Arne Engels will come into the side after being rested at the weekend. Expect the Belgian Internationalist to start in beside Callum McGregor, who will captain the side. Benji Nygren will likely come back into the team.
In attack, Tomas Cvancara will likely lead the line again but Junior Amada will fancy getting some minutes after his debut. Seb Tounekti scored once and assisted once and will be hoping to get the nod alongside the returning Daizen Maeda, who was also rested.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain may make his debut after signing as a free agent last week. It will be interesting to see a number of the new signings as they continue to settle into the club.
Predicted Celtic XI: Schmeichel; Araujo, Trusty, Scales, Saracchi; McGregor, Engels, Nygren; Maeda, Cvancara, Tounekti.
Substitutes: Sinisalo; Arthur, Murray, Donovan, Tierney, McCowan, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Bernardo, Hatate, Adamu, Yang, Forrest.
Match Officials
The Scottish FA have confirmed the appointment of Calum Scott as referee for tonight’s Scottish Premiership match at Celtic Park as Celtic host Livingston.
Scott will be assisted by Jonathan Bell and Ross Nelson. Meanwhile, at Clydesdale House, Chris Graham will be on VAR duties with Gary Hilland assisting.
Kick Off Time
The game kicks off at 7:45pm (Celtic Park Time).
Where to Watch
The game will be shown on Celtic TV on a PPV basis with coverage starting at 7:15pm. The PPV is priced at £12.99. Celtic TV subscribers outside Britain and Ireland will be able to watch the game via the club’s streaming service. Highlights will be shown on Sportscene on BBC One Scotland at 10.40pm this evening.
Celtic supporters will be back in their numbers as they look to spur the team onto victory. Hopefully we can see the club and supporters groups resolve issues, or at least pause hostilities until the end of the season.
Score Prediction
The first goal will be the hardest against the relegation threatened visitors, who will park the bus but look for set pieces to threaten Kasper Schmeichel’s goal. Once Celtic go ahead a few more should follow and then it’s all about conserving energy and rotating the squad using the substitutions.
Predicted score – Celtic 3-0 Livingston.
COYBIG!
Last chance to grab your copy of Invincible, signed by Matt Corr
Last remaining copies of Matt Corr’s brilliant debut book ‘Invincible’ are now being sold on our bookstore or just £10 plus postage. And please note we only charge postage on the first book in our order so you can order others for just a tenner each postage free. Invincible is a brilliant read covering that awesome season that ended in spectacular fashion at Hampden in the Scottish Cup final….
Stocks are very low on Invincible so if you want it in your Celtic book collection today would be a good time to order! Visit celticstarbooks.com to get your copy of INVINCIBLE.
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Pause hostilities until the seasons end?, you aren’t really getting this fan collective thing then, I’ll leave it to someone else to explain.