It’s virtually a clean bill of health for Celtic ahead of their blockbuster Premier Sports Cup semi-final with Aberdeen – but there’s likely to be a number of changes after a couple of unsuccessful experiments during the week.
And amongst those, captain Callum McGregor and striker Adam Idah will be eyeing up returns to action. The Premiership’s top two do battle at Hampden looking to set up a return trip to face either Rangers or Motherwell in next month’s final. They’ve matched each other blow for blow in the league so far and drew 2-2 at Parkhead – the only blemish on either team’s domestic record so far.
Brendan Rodgers‘ team downed Dundee on Wednesday, while the Dons were busy shooting down Rangers at Pittodrie. And while he wouldn’t admit as much, the boss will know there were one or two underperformances in that one that won’t fly at the national stadium.
He rotated his forward line with Luis Palma and Yang coming in but neither did enough, you would think, to push their way into starting contention at Hampden. Instead, after Rodgers confirmed a clean bill of health aside from Odin Thiago Holm, it’s likely to be Nicolas Kuhn and Daizen Maeda who slot in either side of the striker.
Idah is back after an injury scare but Kyogo is more match-fit and may be the man to lead the line. Crucially in midfield, skipper McGregor is back – while there’s a decision to be made on which of Liam Scales or Auston Trusty starts beside Cameron Carter-Vickers.
Record Sport forecast five changes to the team that started at Dundee – Anthony Ralston, Paulo Bernardo and Luke McCowan dropping out as well as Yang and Palma.
Predicted Celtic XI
Provisional Celtic squad
Goalkeepers
- Kasper Schmeichel
- Viljami Sinisalo
- Scott Bain
Defenders
- Alistair Johnston
- Anthony Ralston
- Cameron Carter-Vickers
- Liam Scales
- Auston Trusty
- Maik Nawrocki
- Stephen Welsh
- Greg Taylor
- Alex Valle
Midfielders
- Paulo Bernardo
- Arne Engels
- Reo Hatate
- Callum McGregor
- Luke McCowan
- Luis Palma
- Yang Hyun-Jun
Forwards
- Kyogo
- Adam Idah
- Daizen Maeda
- Nicolas Kuhn
- James Forrest