Here we go! European nights are so much better once the sun goes down and it gets a bit colder in the air. Lazio are the latest team to visit Celtic Park and it should be a good game.
Lazio might not be as good as they once were, but there are still some extremely dangerous names in their squad. People like Ciro Immobile, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic and Luis Alberto are good enough to win a game on their own if given time and space.
The most important thing for Neil Lennon tonight is getting his team selection spot on. The team needs to be solid enough at the back to withstand the Lazio threat, but still keep enough attacking players to cause damage at the other end.
There’s a chance a point might be enough if Celtic beat Rennes and Cluj in the other games, but he needs to go for the win tonight.
Taking all of that into account, here’s tonights starting XI to take on the Italians:
It was fully expected that Ryan Christie would come back into the team, so despite a good showing against Ross County it’s Tom Rogic who misses out.
It’s the same starting XI that won against Cluj in the previous game, so clearly Neil Lennon trusts the team to get the job done again.
The Lazio team has also been released, and there are some big names missing from the starting XI:
Luis Alberto and Ciro Immobile are both absent, so former Man City striker Felipe Caicedo leads the line. He’s a big physical player, who isn’t as clinical or as much of a goal threat as Immobile.
The big focus for Celtic has to be keeping Milinkovic Savic quiet. He’s great on the ball and also extremely dangerous in the air. He has a height advantage over the Celtic midfield so Ajer and Jullien will need to be alert and track any runs into the box.
This is a big chance for Celtic to take a big leap towards qualification for the knockout rounds, hopefully trusting the same team will prove to be a wise choice from the gaffer!
