Eight Celtic stars were in action across Thursday and Friday as the first round of international fixtures were played across the globe.
12 Celtic players were called up by their countries in total with some yet to play their opening game, including Finland stopper Viljami Sinisalo and Scotland U21 pair Jude Bonnar and Colby Donovan.
Kasper Schmeichel and Anthony Ralston enjoyed success with Denmark and Scotland respectively, but it wasn’t a great night for Canada’s Alistair Johnston.
67 Hail Hail deliver you a comprehensive Celtic international round-up below.
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Kasper Schmeichel shuts out Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo
Kasper Schmeichel kept a clean sheet as Denmark secured a 1-0 victory over Portugal in the first leg of their Nations League quarter-final clash.
The Celtic goalkeeper played the full 90 minutes but only had to make two saves across the encounter as Cristiano Ronaldo was kept quiet.
Schmeichel wore the captain’s armband for the first time since Euro 2024 and was handed an 8/10 match rating my FotMob.
Anthony Ralston shines as Scotland beat Greece
Anthony Ralston could easily have struggled for Scotland against Greece given the lack of minutes he gets at Celtic with Alistair Johnstone first choice.
But he repaid Scotland boss Steve Clarke’s faith in him with a tremendous performance at right-back as the Tartan Army saw off Greece 1-0 away from home.
Ralston earned an 8.1/10 match rating by FotMob and won 100% of his tackles, ground duels and aerial duels.
His teammate John Souttar was full of praise for both Ralston and Grant Hanley, who isn’t seeing too much action on the pitch with Birmingham City.
Souttar said: “They were both outstanding tonight. It’s probably the toughest thing in football to come into a game like that when you haven’t been playing.
“So it’s a huge credit to those boys and how they look after themselves that they were able to perform at that level. It’s a really impressive result for us.”
Alistair Johnston partly at fault as Canada lose to Mexico
It wasn’t the best night for Celtic and Canada’s first choice right-back Alistair Johnston with Mexico winning 2-0 at the SoFi Stadium.
It was Canada’s big chance to reach the CONCACAF Nations League final but two Raul Jimenez strikes were enough to win the tie for Mexico.
According to Canadian outlet Sportsnet, Johnston was partly at fault for Jimenez’s opening goal after less than a minute of play.
They wrote: “It was a disastrous start for Canada with a Johnston throw-in in his own end intercepted by Mexico some 45 seconds after kickoff.
“Two passes later, Jimenez was gifted the ball in the penalty box when the ball deflected his way off Davies and he beat St. Clair with a low shot to the corner.”
Johnston was also booked in the game and could only muster up a 6.3 FotMob match rating.
Yang Hyun-jun’s cameo for South Korea
South Korea were heavy favourites to overcome Oman at the Goyang Stadium as they aimed to increase their lead at the top of Group B in the 2026 AFC World Cup Qualifiers.
But they were held on the night as Oman scored a late leveller to earn an impressive 1-1 draw. Celtic’s Yang was introduced as a substitute after 85 minutes and managed to create one chance.
South Korea boss Hong Myung-bo labelled his side’s performance the “worst” of their qualification campaign so far.
He said at his post-match press conference: “This was our worst performance so far in this ongoing qualification round. Of course, we had some difficulties from early on because we had some new lineup combinations.
“Luckily, we were able to score in the first half and had a good start to the second half. But we gave away the ball too easily and I got the feeling that we were not leading the match even though we were up by a goal. The opponent did not have a ton of chances but they still scored.”
Cameron Carter-Vickers, Adam Idah, Daizen Maeda & Reo Hatate snubbed
Unfortunately, four Celtic stars failed to play a single minute. Cameron Carter-Vickers watched from the bench as Panama scored in the 94th minute to seal a win over the USMNT.
Adam Idah was an unused substitute for the Republic of Ireland as they managed to come from behind against Bulgaria to secure a 2-1 Nations League victory.
And it was a poor night on a personal level for Daizen Maeda and Reo Hatate. Despite Maeda’s incredible Celtic form, he was left on the bench all night as Japan beat Bahrain 2-0.
It was the same for midfielder Hatate, but on a brighter note, they were both in celebratory mood at full-time as Japan qualified for the 2026 World Cup.
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