Potential league decider tomorrow. Celtic win and go 9 points clear with 3 games to go and an unassailable goal difference advantage.
Even a draw for Celtic would leave the huns needing to win 3 games remaining and requiring Celtic to drop points in all 3 of those games for the huns to win the league.
Celtic look to have the stronger squad. Juranovic will be out but with Kyogo and Giakoumakis available there are 5 strong attacking players for 3 positions and the perennial Rogic or O’Riley option in midfield too. Bit light at full back where hopefully we will have better options than Welsh in an emergency.
The huns won’t have Morelos and probably not Roofe or Ramsey either. That means Sakala up front or they play like they lined up at Leipzig and opt for no natural striker - using Aribo or a winger.
I think even though they need to win they’ll try and do it by holding a defensive shape. They’ll push up on Rogic or O’Riley and will press aggressively in the opening quarter to try and unsettle our possession and force us into going more direct. Hopefully Giakoumakis being available makes that a more effective route for Celtic but I think we need to be more willing to play through their press anyway. A scrappy game with Lundstram and Jack flying into tackles is exactly what they want and they’ll try and use their full backs to attack when they can.
We will miss Juranovic taking the ball out of defence and his forward passing is probably the most ambitious of our back four. Important we don’t just leave Taylor and Ralston to figure it out themselves. McGregor is a always available but hoping for a big game from Hatate in midfield to be too good on the ball for them and getting our wingers into space.
It will be one of the trickier rebranding exercises ever carried out. I’m going to wait at least a few months before rejoining after the donnybrook the last time.
I have very fond memories of rangers getting dicked by manyoo in the champions league at OT wan time.
The United fans started singing
“Champions league, your having a laugh” at them and worked their way more and more enthusiastically down to
“Unibond league, your having a laugh”
Great footix fare.
The way Bassey sprinted out of the defensive line and pushed right onto Rogic when it looked like the ball was coming to him was a notable change by them last time. They had pressed aggressively enough at Ibrox and made it tricky for Hart and the centre backs to work it out through midfield but Rogic was in acres on the occasions Celtic got through the initial pressure. He did a lot of damage in that first half but Bassey bombing out and basically clambering all over him was a high risk, high reward tactic at Hampden.
Madden effectively let him wrestle and foul Rogic repeatedly, there was one amusing incident shortly after half time when Bassey was pulling Rogic’s jersey with two hands and kinda climbing up on his back and Madden gave the freekick to the huns when Rogic pushed him off. I was disappointed that Celtic didn’t figure out a way to overcome this in game, it really disrupted our flow. As you say, Giakoumakis being available gives Celtic another, more direct option. And Kyogo being another couple of weeks fitter/sharper is another thing in our favour.
I said before the last game that these encounters are often tight and decided on minor details, despite all sense of perspective being lost and sweeping conclusions being made in favour or against one side or the other depending on the result. But carrying a bit of anger/desire for revenge and learning a few key lessons from the last game will hopefully result in Celtic getting the result and all but securing the title.
Yeah I said before the last game that they were very slow to react to Rogic having all the room at Ibrox because O’Riley had the same space in February. But they figured it out at Hampden and then I felt we were much too slow to react to it by putting Maeda in behind Bassey and giving us the option to go into that space when Bassey came forward.
We weren’t helped by the refereeing either because they didn’t let anyone dribble past them as McGregor had done at Ibrox and any means necessary to stop our midfield play was permitted.
Hopefully Beaton will be out of his depth on the big occasion and meekly surrenders along with the hun midfield.
