Celtic will play at the Aviva Stadium for the fifth time on Saturday, and it’s rarely dull at the home of Irish football.
The Hoops are in Dublin to take on Wolves in our penultimate match of pre-season.
Brendan Rodgers‘ side will be backed by a large following, with the Hoops support set to take over the Aviva Stadium for the afternoon.
We’ve ventured over to the stunning arena four times so far in its 13-year history and there have been plenty of things to talk about after each match.
Our first visit came in July 2011, when we competed in the Dublin Super Cup alongside Manchester City, Inter Milan and a League of Ireland XI.
City were the only side we didn’t face, with the organisers setting us up for a 2-0 loss to Inter Milan and a 5-0 win over the Irish side.
This writer was in Dublin that fun weekend, and remembers Joe Hart copping some friendly banter from the Celtic support.
Hart had a big grin on his face as the support behind the net chanted “Theres Only One Shay Given” during a Manchester City warm-up. Thankfully, AC Sports Images have documented this online and I didn’t make the whole thing up.
Who would have foreseen Hart playing for us all of these years later?
Our next visit to the Aviva came in 2013, and saw an Amido Balde strike down the might of Liverpool.
Steven Gerrard and Brendan Rodgers were both on the losing side that day at a sold-out stadium. Again, few would have envisaged how things would play out.
Our most recent visit to the stadium came in 2016. With Rodgers now in charge of us, we went down 3-1 to Barcelona in the International Champions Cup. (Whatever happened to that?)
Lionel Messi, arguably the greatest football of all time, played that day and dazzled. Alongside Patrick Roberts.
Let’s see what Saturday throws up.
In other news, Celtic’s last ten friendlies against English teams
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
