CELTIC (4-4-2) Forster; Fisher, Ambrose, Van Dijk, Izaguirre; Forrest, Brown, Ledley, Mulgrew; Stokes, Balde
Subs: Zaluska, Kayal, Pukki, Lustig, Boerrigter, Biton, Rogic
Good to see Balde get a start and young Fisher. Biton should be given a start though.
That’s another strong team. Brown may as well play every SPL game because of his European suspension but I hope we’re no risking anything with Ledley by starting him there too. Boerrigter back on the bench - hope he gets a run and is free from those nagging injury problems.
Free header for Stokes from 7 yards but he seemed to mistime his jump and headed over.
He seems to do that a lot.
Putting them under good pressure. Few decent crosses into the box and we’re keeping the tempo high.
Brown unlucky that his volley was straight at the defender.
Smashing cross by Fisher but Baldé heads over.
Missed the Dundee United goal but we’re one down. Stokes has gone close a couple of times since.
They had possession just outside the box over to the left. Some guy floated a little diagonal over van Dijk’s head to Armstong making a straight run. Izzy didn’t track him and he sprung the offside trap. Forster forced him to go wide around him but he squeezed it in. Sloppy goal and it was a mixture of van Dijk and Izaguirre to blame. Celtic are playing okay but lacking a bit of spark and incision.
Pukki on for Baldé
Charlie!!!
Right footed cross from Izzy after a throw in and Mulgrew glances it into the corner on 92 minutes.
Finishes 1-1
Fairly crap display but we remain unbeaten in the league. Their striker missed a sitter at 1-0 that would have finished the game. Celtic were quite predictable with a lot of players coming back inside and playing the square pass. We were going over and back without hurting them for large chunks of the game. It was the type of game where we missed a sharp penalty box striker - Stokes was dropping deep and pulling left a lot and Balde was pretty cumbersome, while Pukki also drifts around in a similar manner to Stokes.
How’s Gary Hooper getting on in the EPL?
After Virgili went up front for the last few minutes he managed to knock a few balls down but we’d nobody gambling on it. We definitely lack a striker with poaching instincts. I thought Stokes started brightly today but drifted further from their goal and ultimately drifted out of the game. Baldé doesn’t look convincing yet. His goals have come from running with the ball, which is curious because it’s something he’s not very good at. Could do with him being a bigger presence around their box.
Any status updates on Commons and Samaras post game?
@Rocko, Neil Lennon said post match that Commons, Samaras and Kayal would all be fit for Wednesday night.
@Rudi, I haven’t been following Hooper’s progress closely but I understand he was injured in pre-season and has featured in the last 3 weeks or so. I don’t think he’s scored in the league.