Giorgos Giakoumakis is likely to be rested for his country’s next friendly against Montenegro, according to Greek outlet Gazzetta.
Giakoumakis played for over an hour against Romania in Gus Poyet’s first game in charge on Friday night. The striker was unfortunate not to get his name on the scoresheet too having had a goal wrongly disallowed for offside.
And it looks as though he won’t start Greece’s next match against Montenegro. Gazzetta reports that Poyet has already announced that changes will be made for their next match, and they report that Giakoumakis heading out of the team for Vangelis Pavlidis is likely to be one of them.
Giakoumakis is still likely to be in the matchday squad regardless and could feature from the bench against Montenegro today. However, Greek media clearly believe that he’ll be one of the players to miss out.
Celtic fans have already been given some great updates on their players over the last day alone. Nir Bitton was allowed to leave the Israel camp early whilst Josip Juranovic looks set to be rested for Croatia.
The Hoops have a massive Glasgow derby against Rangers coming up in 6 days’ time. Having so many of their big players rested would be a major plus for Ange Postecoglou.
Celtic need Giorgos Giakoumakis fit and firing for Ibrox
It’s lining up to be a class week for Celtic when it comes to their players being rested. Carl Starfelt is likely to be on the bench for Sweden for their World Cup qualifier against Poland tomorrow night also.
Granted, all of these things can be subjected to change. It could be the case that Poyet wants another look at Giakoumakis to potentially get him his goal after the injustice against Romania. It could be that Zlatko Dalic, the Croatia boss, decides that he needs Juranovic in his side to continue their momentum.
But the early signs are promising, and the same goes for Giakoumakis. Given AZ Alkmaar striker Pavlidis has yet to be given his opportunity by Poyet, you have to imagine that’s coming tomorrow night.
From a Celtic perspective, of course we want to see players playing for their national teams. It can do wonders for morale and can have them coming back to Celtic Park in great spirits. But with Rangers at Ibrox on Sunday, it’s simply something we could do without.
The last thing we need, for example, is Giakoumakis picking up an ankle knock and being out for Ibrox. All of a sudden you would be looking at a massive reshuffle of what Ange Postecoglou will want to go with.
So hopefully come tomorrow night, Giakoumakis is given more of a rest. It would certainly suit our chances next weekend.
In other news, Kenny Dalglish says title foes’ off-field issues could affect them as Celtic fixture looms
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