Manager Brendan Rodgers has named his Celtic team to face Buckie Thistle for today’s Scottish Cup fourth round encounter at Celtic Park.
The full match squad is as follows:
Starting XI – Hart, A. Johnston, Nawrocki, Scales, Taylor, Holm, O’Riley, Bernardo, Abada, Palma, Kyogo.
Substitutes – Bain, Lagerbielke, Turnbull, Bernabei, Vata, Kelly, Vata, Welsh, M. Johnston.
The road to Hampden starts for Celtic today against Highland League opposition and will present an opportunity for the Hoops to build momentum ahead of their Scottish Premiership return next weekend.
Cameron Carter-Vickers will miss out as Rodgers takes no chances on his fitness ahead of some crucial upcoming league fixtures while Nicolas Kuhn won’t make his much-anticipated debut after losing strength from an operation on his wisdom teeth.
Reo Hatate, Daizen Maeda, Hyeongyu Oh, Marco Tilio and Yang Hyun-jun remain on Asian Cup duty and aren’t available for selection.
Broadcast details
Today’s match will be shown live on Viaplay Sports 1 in the United Kingdom. Celtic TV will also be showing all the action to subscribers outside of the UK and Ireland, with options for audio commentary and a full match replay inside the UK and Ireland.
Star+ and ESPNPlay Caribbean hold the rights to show the match across much of Central and South America. LiveSoccerTV has a full list of where to watch the game; however, it should be noted that the Republic of Ireland doesn’t have any listings to take in proceedings from Celtic Park.
BBC Radio Sportsound will provide audio commentary of events live from Glasgow’s east end for those who cannot attend or view the match on television.
Instant verdict on Celtic team vs Buckie Thistle
First of all, it should be said that resting Carter-Vickers for today’s occasion looks to be a wise move. The United States international will be a pivotal player for the rest of the campaign and wrapping him in cotton wool is a sensible step by Rodgers.
Former Germany Under-20 international Kuhn looks to be a signing that will excite the Hoops’ support; however, they will have to wait a little longer to see the former Rapid Vienna man in action.
In terms of the starting side, Rodgers looks to have gone in at full strength to try and ensure his side make it through with little complication. Despite fielding an extremely strong line-up, Odin Thiago Holm inherits his first opportunity to start since late November against Motherwell [Transfermarkt].
Other than that, the Hoops are as strong as they could be in more or less every other position. On the bench, youngsters such as Rocco Vata and Daniel Kelly could secure their first senior minutes this term.
Encouragingly, Liel Abada returns from the beginning after recovering from a long-term injury lay-off and will be desperate to get on the scoresheet to help Celtic secure their opening home win of 2024.
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