Celtic’s Champions League fixtures for Group F have this morning been revealed and what a start we have with Real Madrid coming to Paradise on Tuesday 6 September, just three days after we play theRangers at Celtic Park in the Scottish Premiership.
It’s the first time that Real Madrid, the current reigning European Champions, will have played at Celtic Park since March 1980, when Celtic won 2-0 in the first leg of the quarter-final of the European Cup, with the goals coming from George McCluskey and Johnny Doyle (god bless him).
Kick-off for the Celtic v Real Madrid match is 8pm on Tuesday 6 September 2022.
For Match-day 2 Celtic will travel back to the Polish capital Warsaw to take on Ukrainian Champions Shakhtar Donetsk (who are unable to play their games in their home country due to the war with Russia) and that Shakhtar Donetsk v Celtic match will take place at Legia Warsaw’s stadium on Wednesday 14 September.
Match-day 3 sees Celtic travel to the east of Germany to play Leipzig on Wednesday 5 October, this being the first tie in a double header against the Bundesliga side who visit Celtic Park for Match-day 4 on Tuesday 11 October.
And Match-day 5 is also at Celtic Park this time we will welcome Shakhtar Donetsk back to Paradise on Tuesday 25 October.
Then Group F concludes with Celtic taking on Real Madrid in the Bernabeu on Wednesday 2 November.
Playing the top seeded team – and the current Champions of Europe – away from home in the last game could have its advantages for Celtic. However due to ongoing renovations at the Bernabeu the away ticket allocation that Celtic has been given is just 1800 tickets, with considerably more supporters likely to make the trip to the Spanish capital hoping to see Glasgow Celtic putting on a show…
CELTIC’S GROUP F FIXTURES
Celtic v Real Madrid (Tuesday 6 September, KO: 8pm)
Shakhtar Donetsk v Celtic (Wednesday 14 September, KO: 5.45pm)
RB Leipzig v Celtic (Wednesday 5 October, KO: 5.45pm)
Celtic v RB Leipzig (Tuesday 11 October, KO: 8pm)
Celtic v Shakhtar Donetsk (Tuesday 25 October, KO: 8pm)
Real Madrid v Celtic (Wednesday 2 November, KO: 5.45pm)
✨ #CelticFC's @ChampionsLeague Group Stage Fixture Dates:
🗓 6/9 8pm Real Madrid (H)
🗓 14/9 5:45pm Shakhtar Donetsk (A)
🗓 5/10 5:45pm RB Leipzig (A)
🗓 11/10 8pm RB Leipzig (H)
🗓 25/10 8pm Shakhtar Donetsk (H)
🗓 2/11 5:45pm Real Madrid (A)— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) August 27, 2022
Happy birthday to our leader Ange Postecoglou. A man who inherited a shambles and moulded a team that took back the league and is now on the verge of playing Real Madrid in the Champions League. We are blessed to have such a man at the helm of @CelticFC HH pic.twitter.com/JJ24d1F3jr
— Celtic Gossip (@CelticGossip) August 27, 2022
The Glasgow Derby should be a good competitive warm up match for taking on the European Champions Real Madrid a few days later.
Its a tough schedule of CL games, hosting Madrid followed by two away trips, and we need to take points from these opening ties to be still in the competition going into our final two home ties.
I suppose the one benefit of sharing a group with Real Madrid is knowing that when we’re not playing against them, one of our group competitors is!