Celtic v theRangers – Predicted Celtic Team

Martin O’Neill will have told his players who is starting, who is on the bench and who doesn’t get changed when they arrive at Hampden Park for today’s Premier Sports Cup semi final against the Rangers.

There’s likely to be changes to the Celtic side that played so well against Falkirk on Wednesday night at Celtic Park with both Daizen Maeda and Kieran Tierney strong contenders to be on the pitch at kick-off.

The interim Celtic manager will have consulted with his former player and temporary assistant manager in this Celtic shakeup and will have gone with the team selection that maximises Celtic’s chances of securing our first win of 2025 against the latest Ibrox club.

Kasper Schmeichel will be in goals and we reckon the back four will be unchanged from midweek with Ralston, Trusty, Scales and Saracchi all doing enough against Falkirk to earn MON’s confidence this afternoon.

The same goes for the midfield with our captain Callum McGregor being joined by Arne Engels and Benjamin Nygren.

Daizen Maeda really must start given his record against the club Charles Green founded before buying the Rangers FC titles. He’ll play on the right of Celtic’s frontline with Johnny Kenny, after netting a double in midweek keeping his place in the team. Sebastian Tounekti will start on the left of the front three with James Forrest having a role to play from the bench as an impact substitute.

So we reckon the Celtic team will be as follows:

Schmeichel; Ralston, Trusty, Scales, Saracchi; McGregor (c), Engels, Nygren; Maeda, Kenny and Tounekti

Subs: Sinisalo, Tierney, Donovan, Murray, Hatate, Balikwisha, McCowan, Bernardo, Iheanacho, Forrest Forrest and Osmand.

We’ll get the team news soon enough and will post it on The Celtic Star.