Celtic return to Scottish Premiership action this lunchtime with a tricky trip to face Jim Goodwin’s Dundee United at Tannadice…
Yesterday everyone in Europe was talking about theRangers leapfrogging hapless Aberdeen with their 1-0 at Ibrox over Dundee to move into second spot in the league and close the gap on Celtic to ‘just’ eight points.
Today Celtic can stretch our advantage to 11 points over theRangers and an incredible 12 points over Jimmy Thelin’s side after they lost 3-1 to Hibs yesterday. Celtic will follow this game up with two matches at Celtic Park with Philippe Clement’s side will have two tough away fixtures before the two Glasgow sides meet for the third time this season at Ibrox on 2 January 2025.
Celtic Team News
James Forrest is missing after taking a knock in extra-time in the Premier Sports Cup Final win over theRangers at Hampden last weekend. Alistair Johnston made the final after being a doubt having taken a knock in the Champions League match in Zagreb. It’s unlikely that the Canadian will feature at Tannadice today. Brendan Rodgers also hinted at one or two other changes today due to illness in the camp during the week. Luke McCowan comes back into the squad after sitting out the Cup Final as he was cup-tied.
Brendan’s Thoughts
“Winning is hard, although it’s sometimes made to feel probably here that it’s something easy. It’s not an easy thing to do and it’s certainly not an easy thing to do repetitively – what this team has done.
“If you think over this calendar year, this team has only lost twice – once when we went down to 10 men (away to Hearts in March) and then a Borussia Dortmund game against the Champions League finalists where we were outclassed on the night.
“But the mental strength and the mentality, and the consistency show that what this team have done – I think the supporters recognise that, which is the most important thing.”
Predicted Celtic Team
Schmeichel; Ralston, Carter-Vickers, Trusty, Taylor; McGregor (c), Bernardo, Engels; Kuhn, Kyogo and Maeda. The team news will be available at 10.45am and we’ll post it a few minutes later.
Match officials
The SFA have confirmed the refereeing appointments for the game with David Dickinson set to take charge. Dickinson will be assisted by Calum Spence and Craig Ferguson.
Meanwhile at Clydesdale House, Gavin Duncan is on VAR duties with Andrew McWilliam assisting.
The 44-year-old took charge of Celtic’s 3-0 win against Motherwell at Fir Park back in October. The official missed a penalty call for Celtic after Daizen Maeda was hauled down by Stephen O’Donnell before his hand guided the ball into the net. Later in the game, Dickinson upgraded Liam Gordon’s yellow card to a red after his late challenge on Adam Idah was reviewed.
Kick-off Time
Dundee United v Celtic in the Scottish Premiership has a 12 noon kick off.
Where to Watch
The game is live on Sky Sports Main Event and Football channels from 11am. Dundee United versus Celtic will also be broadcast live on Celtic TV to subscribers based outside of Britain and Ireland. There will also be a play-back on Celtic TV from midnight.
🗣️ “I was fully aware – growing up and following Celtic – that Tannadice was a really tough place to go.”
Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers looks ahead to his first match against Dundee United on Sunday – live on Sky Sports 📺 pic.twitter.com/4CtehhdFbT
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) December 20, 2024
Predicted Score
Three points against a home side that will park the bus and look to frustrate Celtic, but we’ll get the job done with a 2-0 victory that will set us up nicely for a very strong finish to a brilliant year in which all three domestic trophies have been won.
COYBIG
Unconfirmed rumours that the first thing they mentioned was that penalty not given in Hampden last week….👀 #celticfc
— Michael Kelly (@armaghtim.bsky.social) 22 December 2024 at 09:31
Celtic in the Thirties
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Wee bit off there on the predicted team, no?
First time for everything Frank. We did say that there was a bug…