Celtic v Ross County: Team News, Match Officials, KO Time and Where to Watch

And so we reach the finale of an intense run of games over the past 44 days that included six challenging Champions League fixtures. Despite that domestically Celtic’s form has been impressive, progressing to the semi-final of the League Cup where we face Kilmarnock early in January at Hampden and increasing our lead to seven points at the top of the league, looking down on theRangers.

This morning the latest Ibrox side are heading down the Westbound M8 towards Paisley knowing that they need three points and that a defeat to St Mirren, the only team to have take points off Celtic this season, would give Ange Postecoglou’s side the opportunity to stretch to gap at the top of the table even further going into the break for the World Cup.

Ross County are on good form having won their last two games, including at Easter Road last week. Yet as Ange Postecoglou is fond of saying, if we play our football, we’ll be hard to stop.

If the gap increased beyond the seven points margin it’s at this morning then it could be curtains for Giovanni van Bronckhorst as far as his current employment status is concerned. A big day in the cinch Premiership. COYBIG…

Match Officials

David Munro has the whistle today, his assistant referees are Ross Macleod and David Doig, the Fourth Official is Matthew McDermid.

VAR Officials

Meanwhile back at VAR’s Clydebank ludge (copyright, Sandman) we have Evan Anderson assisted by David McGeachie who will no doubt be eager to do their worst as far as trying to derail the Hoops. Yet as Ange Postecoglou is fond of saying, if we play our football, we’ll be hard to stop.

Team News

Ange Postecoglou reported yesterday that everyone came through the 2-1 win at Fir Park in midweek without mishap, so it’s just Callum McGregor and James McCarthy who are unavailable today. With Aaron Mooy, Daizen Maeda, Josip Juranovic and Cameron Carter-Vickers all heading to the World Cup after this game, Ange might be looking to protect them as much as possible, with CCV perhaps being the only one of the four he starts.

The squad rotate plan is likely to be retained today, as it has certainly proved effective during this challenging fixture schedule. Joe Hart though will keep the gloves, the Scotland pairing of Anthony Ralston and Greg Taylor will be on display, we reckon, showing Steve Clarke what he’s missing for his friendly in Turkey in midweek and Moritz Jenz is likely to start alongside Carter-Vickers, although Ange might opt to play Carl Starfelt alongside either one of the other two.

Matt O”Riley, Reo Hatate and perhaps David Turnbull will be the midfield trio while it’s Giorgos Giakoumakis’ turn to lead the line with a decent selection of choices for the wings. Last time we reckoned that Ange would give the nod to James Forrest and Sead Haksabanovic and we got that wrong, so we’ll go for second time lucky today.

Predicted Team: Hart, Ralston, Taylor, Carter-Vickers, Jenz, O’Riley, Hatate, Turnbull, Forrest, Giakoumakis and Haksabanovic with of course a very strong Celtic bench…

Kick Off Time

Celtic v Ross County kicks off at 3pm (Celtic Park Tine) with official team news at around 1.45pm on The Celtic Star. Today’s game is a 60,000 sell-out.

Celtic FC Foundation Bucket Collection 

The Celtic FC Foundation Annual Christmas Appeal Bucket Collection, which has played a key role in our fundraising efforts for many years, takes place today ahead of game against Ross County. Please give you you can, to help share the magic this Christmas….

Where to Watch

Today’s game is live on Celtic TV for subscribers outside of Britain and Ireland while subscribers in Britain and Ireland can enjoy the audio commentary on Celtic TV while a play-back later tonight. Hopefully there will be a Unique Angle to enjoy either later this evening or first thing tomorrow morning.

The Celtic Rising

Just a reminder that if you are going to the game today and are looking at getting a copy of The Celtic Rising ~ 1965: The Year Jock Stein Changed Everything, it’s available in the Celtic Superstore.

Post Match Media Conference 

Matt Corr will be representing The Celtic Star at the post-match media conference this afternoon with Ange Postecoglou and a Celtic player. He might ask Ange about this…

Enjoy the match. COYBIG…

About Author

Born just as Celtic were stopping the Ten, Lubo98 follows Celtic home and away and helps run his local Celtic Supporters Club. He goes to all the games and is a Law Graduate. Has a particular fondness for Tom Rogic among the current Celts and both Lubo and Henrik form his earliest Celtic memories.

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