Ismaila Soro is yet to feature for Neil Lennon’s Celtic since arriving in January from Bnei Yehuda. The Ivorian made the bench in the Scottish Cup win over Clyde as Storm Ciara blew across the country; however he has yet to sample first team football.
He has, however, been getting up to speed at training as well as playing games for the reserve team. Most notably on Monday when Celtic beat Hibernian 4-1 to reach the SPFL Reserves Cup Final.
With Celtic sweating on Scott Brown‘s injury and Olivier Ntcham a doubt for Thursday’s match with Copenhagen, where will Neil Lennon look? The trusted Nir Bitton would be the obvious choice to replace Brown should both he and Ntcham remain sidelined but that still leaves Celtic short in terms of cover.
Soro could make the bench for the sell-out at Paradise and experience the incredible atmosphere as the Scottish Champions look to progress to the Last 16.
Neil Lennon watched on as Soro played in the midfield for the reserve team and as he was hooked after 76 minutes suggests they were taking no chances on his fitness.
Reading between the lines, Lennon was seeing if Soro was up to the required sharpness to be included in his plans for Thursday night as he sweats on Scott Brown’s fate.
📸|| #Celtic cruised into the Reserve Cup final with a 4-1 victory over Hibernian at the Lennoxtown Training Centre today pic.twitter.com/NDECdWrmPj
— Paul Devlin (@PaulSNSPix) February 24, 2020
Could we then see Soro included on the bench for Celtic as they face the Danes on Thursday night? Is Neil Lennon willing to risk throwing the 21-year-old into the deep end? Or will he be more willing to rush either Brown or Ntcham should they be struggling to make the squad.
Soro is yet to experience Celtic Park on a European night and it could either inspire him or intimidate him. Then again, one of Eboue Kouassi’s best games for Celtic was on his European debut versus Zenit. It is a sink or swim environment and Soro will be hoping that if he gets on the pitch, he excels.
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