Austria will once again be home to Celtic this summer

By Hamish Carton

May 8, 2019

The current season may still have three games to go – including a tasty derby and a cup final – but attentions at Celtic are already turning to the start of next season. We don’t even know who our next manager will be but we do know who our first game of the season will be against.

Let’s take a look at Celtic’s confirmed pre-season fixtures so far, and what history tells us about the fixtures we’ve yet to announce.

(ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP/Getty Images)

Austria bound

Celtic will begin pre-season in Austria for the fourth successive year. The Hoops travelled to the country in all three of Brendan Rodgers’ years in charge. They will once again head to Austria at the tail-end of June. They will start with a match against minows Pinkafeld on the evening of June 26th. Following that they’ll take on Wiener SC (June 29th) and Swiss top-flight outfit St Gallen (July 2nd).

(Photo by Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images)

Other likely fixtures

Over the past couple of seasons, the Hoops have then travelled over to Ireland to face Shamrock Rovers. The matches gave Brendan Rodgers an opportunity to see the condition of his players ahead of the first Champions League qualifier the following midweek.

Rovers may be less inclined to take on this fixture this time around though. They’ve lost 9-0 and 7-0 over the past two seasons.

(Photo by Andrew Surma/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Following that, Celtic usually announce a “glamour friendly” to be played at home. This match usually gives fans an opportunity to see any new signings in action although Rodgers had been known to play second-string sides on occasion. Recent years have seen the Hoops take on Wolfsburg, Lyon and Standard Liege in these clashes.