Neil Lennon has announced tonight’s Celtic team for their trip to Lille in their Europa League group stage clash, as per the official club Twitter account.
The full matchday squad is as follows:
Starting XI: Bain, Frimpong, Duffy, Ajer, Laxalt, Brown, McGregor, Christie, Ntcham, Elyounoussi, Ajeti
Subs: Barkas, Taylor, Bitton, Griffiths, Klimala, Soro, Turnbull, Rogic, Edouard, Henderson, Welsh, Dembele
Tonight’s game is a lot bigger than the build-up has perhaps made it out to be. Celtic have failed to win three games in-a-row and are desperately looking for a morale-booster from somewhere.
However, it’s more important due to the fact we were beaten 3-1 by AC Milan at Celtic Park last week. That defeat, coupled with Lille’s 4-1 win at Sparta Prague, means that losing further ground will make the group a lot more difficult to progress from.
Celtic go into this one tonight with a huge game to look forward to on Sunday against Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup. However, Lennon’s starting XI tonight shows the importance with which he views this one.
It’s one of the strongest teams he could’ve named. However Lennon has indeed sprung a surprise by keeping number one goalkeeper Vasilis Barkas out of the team after Scott Bain conceded three at Pittodrie on Sunday. The latter has kept his place.
It looks as though Celtic will be operating with a 4-2-3-1 formation once again, with Ryan Christie coming in from the right whilst Olivier Ntcham operates in the number 10 role.
There’s a hugely strong bench there if required. Odsonne Edouard and Nir Bitton return from Covid set-backs to take spots as subs, whilst the likes of Leigh Griffiths, Tom Rogic, and David Turnbull are also available.
Broadcast Details
Due to the fact it’s a Europa League game, the match will not be shown live on the Pass to Paradise streaming system.
The game also won’t be shown live for any Celtic TV subscribers either. This, again, is due to the fact tonight’s game is a European one. Celtic TV will instead have live audio coverage from 17:45 (Celtic Park time). The game can then be viewed on the platform at 11pm.
For those in the UK and Ireland, the game can only be viewed live on BT Sport 3, with live coverage starting there at 17:30.
In the United States, the game can be viewed using a CBS All Access package.
Alternatively, you can listen to the game live on BBC Scotland’s Scottish football page. There will also be live text updates on the game there too.
Fan Reaction
As expected, there is a bit of pessimism ahead of what’s perhaps going to be our hardest fixture of the season so far.
There is some widespread disappointment that Rogic doesn’t keep his team. However, there is still some optimism that you can only have on a big European night.
There isn’t one main talking point of the starting XI that supporters’ are focusing on however. Many of Lennon’s choices this evening have got some early debate going, and it’ll be interesting to see who turns up for him on the night.
As is always the case for games as tough as this one, all we can do is hope the players do the jersey justice this evening.
Here’s a look at some of the pre-match reaction from supporters:
https://twitter.com/allcaps67/status/1321855242112258055
https://twitter.com/bigG1888/status/1321857127338725378
https://twitter.com/PaulMcG1994/status/1321855041611988994
https://twitter.com/scottsweeney21/status/1321856993418727426
https://twitter.com/cheesybiscuit_/status/1321856659346628610
https://twitter.com/P__67/status/1321855161820655616
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