Celtic continue the defence of their status as Premier Sports Cup winners tonight with a visit to Motherwell and Fir Park for the chance to reach the semi-finals of the tournament.
A win away to Ross County in the last round has set up this evening’s kick-off, which has the unusual kick-off time of 6:15pm.
League Cup matches have the potential to through up alternative team selections, but with some much rotation at the weekend, will Ange Postecoglou field what looks to be a full-strength XI tonight? Here’s our go at the team…
Benjamin Siegrist played in the last round but that was after a Joe Hart head knock against Dundee United in the 9-0 Tannadice win. With Hart facing no such issues right now I reckon we won’t see a change in this regard.
Anthony Ralston and Alexandro Bernabei both started at the weekend, perhaps indicating that Postecoglou favours his strongest starting full-backs staying on a mid-week schedule with Shakhtar Donetsk and Real Madrid coming up over the next couple of weeks. I reckon Greg Taylor and Josip Juranovic will both feature tonight with that in mind.
I can’t foresee changes in central defence, however, with Cameron Carter-Vickers and Moritz Jenz likely to get another opportunity to build their partnership.
Celtic’s midfield tonight will be interesting. There’s an opportunity to hand Oliver Abildgaard his first start with Reo Hatate and Matt O’Riley involved ahead of him. However, with Aaron Mooy in such good form at the weekend, could he replace one of the ‘number 8s’ in this trio or simply deny an opportunity to Abildgaard?
In attacker, Sead Haksabanovic getting more minutes would be a popular choice on the wing, while capitalising on James Forrest‘s fine re-introduction could work out well on the opposite flank.
Through the middle, there will be a debate on whether to include Kyogo Furuhashi or Giorgos Giakoumakis. I’ve gone with the former owing to the Greek’s slight knock on Saturday and the fact keeping Kyogo on this mid-week schedule for Champions League tests.
Keeping Giakoumakis ready for the battle away to Hearts on Saturday sounds good to me anyway.
Your predicted XI in full is: Hart, Juranovic, Carter-Vickers, Jenz, Taylor, Abildgaard, O’Riley, Hatate, Forrest, Haksabanovic, Kyogo.
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