The international action is now over with Celtic’s global stars jetting back to Scotland.
We’re still a good few days away from the Hoops returning at Tynecastle on Sunday. Yet, the international program has been concluded for another month or so, and we’ll admit we’re kind of glad about that.
Some Celtic players were amongst the action on Tuesday while others had a watching brief. Here’s a quick rundown of how they get on.
While you were sleeping, the United States were securing a very impressive 4-0 friendly win over Ghana in Nashville. Cameron Carter-Vickers didn’t start the match, but he did play around 20 minutes, following on from similar game time in Saturday’s defeat to Germany.
Most importantly, CCV seems to have come through the two appearances without any injury. Given the worries we expressed about him going on international duty so soon after returning from a couple of lengthy lay-offs, it is a relief that he’s returning to Scotland fit.
Paulo Bernardo is another who hasn’t seen much game time for Celtic as of late. However, he got around 170 minutes of action over two matches for Portugal’s under-21s. Bernardo even netted in their 6-1 win over Belarus last week before playing the entirety of the victory against Greece.
It’s promising to see that he’s fit and able to play these minutes. Surely his first start at Celtic is just around the corner.
Hyeongyu Oh is another who could probably have done with some game time for South Korea over their two matches against Tunisia and Vietnam. They won those friendlies 4-0 and 6-0 respectively, yet Oh failed to get a single minute on the park.
It seems like his status has fallen a fair bit under Jürgen Klinsmann. When you factor in that he hasn’t scored a goal for club or country since May, it’s fair to say that he’s going through some struggles right now. He needs a goal.
Elsewhere, as you’ll no doubt have seen, Kyogo Furuhashi netted for Japan in their 2-0 win over Tunisia. Reo Hatate also started that one.
Greg Taylor played the entirety of Scotland’s 4-1 defeat to France, while Callum McGregor was an unused sub.
Matt O’Riley was on the bench for Denmark as they avoided a major shock, only beating San Marino 2-1. Last but not least, Odin Thiago Holm was an unused sub for Norway’s under-21s as they lost 2-0 to Italy.
In other news, Mikey Johnston fully explains his most recent Celtic injury; pre-match text from Rodgers
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