Celtic are on the road this weekend after last week’s thumping win at home to Kilmarnock, facing Hibernian at Easter Road in the Scottish Premiership.
Celtic and Hibs played against each other three times last season. The Bhoys were unbeaten with two wins and a draw but the games in Edinburgh were tough shifts.
The first in October ended in a dour 0-0 draw, while a stoppage-time Adam Idah penalty was required to secure all three points in the capital back in February.
We know Brendan Rodgers’ side are in good form, however. The pre-season matches in the USA and last week’s opener against Killie have shown Celtic to be full of attacking intent and creativity – it would be fantastic to see another confident display on Sunday.
There are no declared injury concerns coming out of that Flag Day victory and, in fact, two of last season’s regulars could end up returning to get minutes on the pitch on Sunday.
Daizen Maeda gets the ‘okay’ for Hibs
Japanese winger Daizen Maeda missed out last week after picking up a nasty knee knock in the victory over Chelsea.
Concerns were raised about his status after he wasn’t spotted in training pictures yesterday but thankfully Rodgers said he was ‘okay’ when asked by assembled journalists at his media conference.
Paulo Bernardo was included in the squad to face Killie last Sunday but didn’t make a substitute appearance. With a full week of training under his belt, he should at least get some minutes in the second half this weekend.
It’ll be a settled Celtic team vs Hibs
Neither are likely to start, however, so we could end up seeing the exact same eleven as last week. There’s no reason to change a winning team at this stage of the season after all.
The lively James Forrest and Nicolas Kuhn ably supported Kyogo Furuhashi last week and you’d say they’d be the most likely to be rotated out.
Rodgers won’t want to any risks with Maeda as he gets back to full match fitness with plenty of football and important games on the horizon.
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