That’s more like it Bhoys! Last night Celtic put our recent woes behind us to register our first win in our Europa League campaign…
The Bhoys deservedly beat SK Sturm Graz 2-1 at Celtic Park to give us a much needed confidence booster as we head into our toughest test of the season this coming Sunday lunchtime at Tynecastle against league leaders Hearts.
Despite falling behind to a sensational goal, and losing both Kelechi Iheanacho and the returning Alistair Johnston to injury, we kept at it, and our resistance paid off as we scored twice in three second half minutes courtesy of Liam Scales and Benjamin Nygren to deservedly claim all three points from what was an excellent game of football.
Our players deserve the recent criticism they have been receiving due to some woeful form, so it’s only fair that we give them praise when it’s due, as they showed terrific character to fight their way back into the game despite things going against us in the opening 45 minutes.
Our midfield looked more efficient than it’s been these past few weeks, with Arne Engels in particular having a superb game. It certainly was a bad night for all the Engels haters out there but you may have noticed that some are instead turning their attention to Reo Hatate.
Sebastian Tounekti continues to impress, and Benji Nygren despite missing a load of chances, didn’t give up and got his rewards by scoring what proved to be the winner, just minutes after Liam Scales’ well worked equaliser. The Irishman was named Man of the Match and deservedly so. he’s another who has shut up his critics, for now at least.
We looked more fluent, we created loads of chances, and we more importantly we took them when it mattered. That’s more like it Bhoys, let’s take some real momentum from this as we head to Edinburgh on Sunday to take on the Diets.
There will be Celtic team down to its bare bones for that one with Brendan Rodgers likely to go with this starting XI against Hearts with three changes from the team that started against SK Sturm Graz.
Predicted Celtic Team for Tynecastle: Schmeichel; Donovan, Trusty, Scales, Tierney; McGregor (c), Engels, Hatate; Nygren, Kenny and Tounekti
Subs: Sinisalo, Saracchi, Murray, Ralston, McCowan, Bernardo, Balikwisha, Shin, Forrest, Yang.
Clearly Alistair Johnston and Kelechi Iheanacho are going to be out for a while, Cameron Carter-Vickers looks likely to miss this game and it’s probably going to be too soon for Daizen Maeda.
Despite the injuries there’s a renewed optimism about Celtic after last night which hopefully kickstarts a winning run to take us through some really crucial upcoming matches starting against a well-rested Hearts on Sunday lunchtime.
Just an Ordinary Bhoy
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Slight fault in squad selection, as we are only allowed 9 subs?
In which case, I would be surprised to see yang involved in to many of our match day squads, before being let go in January imo?
Still think Saracchi might replace Tierney, with the risk factors involved in Tierney being used with reduced recovery time involved.
Will ralston be better suited with the increased intimidating factor than Donovan against the diets?
Thought Trusty had a decent pre season, so hopefully a welcome return, even if his match fitness might be a concern, but the partnership with Scales is nothing new for ourselves either.
Calmac took a heavy knock also,so could be a risk also, but wouldn’t have to many concerns if Paulo had to be used in the calmac role either, especially as calmac is expected to be targeted, and allowed to get away with the likes also.
A potential opportunity awaits for shin, along with Kenny to make strong claims for positions, and hopefully they can take such an opportunity for themselves.
Agreed that nygren might not be the usual orthodox wide player we are use to, but game intelligence more than makes up for that, if able to continue to get himself into goal scoring positions. Certainly would help if he became more clinical, and hopefully a renewed confidence will make that happen.
To think that we could be going into a top of the table clash, with maybe as many as 6 usual starters missing from our starting line-up.
And still having the confidence of gaining a positive result, would be a massive turnaround in just a week.
Still believe a victory is not beyond ourselves, which would be a massive statement victory, long overdue also. And that’s despite the injuries and fatigue factors involved imo?