Motherwell star admits Celtic have three ‘top players’ after watching them from his national team’s bench

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Celtic resume Scottish Premiership duty this afternoon as Brendan Rodgers looks to take all three points from Fir Park in the live TV 3pm kick-off from Fir Park.

Brendan Rodgers knows that Celtic must win against The Steelmen if they are to reclaim their lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership table this afternoon.

However, this won’t be an easy game as Stuart Kettlewell has his side playing good football as Motherwell sit in fifth place just three points behind Rangers.

Motherwell’s Apostolos Stamatelopoulos impressed by Celtic’s Japanese heroes

And looking forward to the game, Well striker Apostolos Stamatelopoulos, admits that he has been impressed with three of Celtic players after watching them from the Australian bench in Japan’s 1-1 draw with the Socceroos this month.

Speaking at Motherwell’s pre-match press conference, Stamatelopoulos said, “Probably the Japanese boys.

“I mean obviously played against them, sat on the bench and saw the quality that that team has [Japan] in the national team.

“And, you know, Maeda, Hatate and Kyogo, I feel, are top players.”

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Motherwell vs Celtic’s previous meetings ahead of 3pm Fir Park kick-off

Since 1985, Celtic have faced Motherwell 106 times in all domestic competitions.

Out of those meetings, the Hoops wave won 77, drew 18 and lost just 11 amounting to a win ratio of 72.6% collecting a massive 249 league points.

So here, 67 Hail Hail takes a look at Celtic biggest and most important wins over The Steelmen over that period.

• Biggest home win: 15.05.2016 – Celtic 7 v 0 Motherwell. Incredibly, Celtic had seven different goalscorers on this day with Kieran Tierney, Tom Rogic, Mikael Lustig, Stuart Armstrong, Patrick Roberts, Ryan Christie and Jack Aitchison all getting on the scoresheet.
• Biggest away win: 21.02.1999 – Motherwell 1 v 7 Celtic. Henrik Larsson bagged four goals with Lubo Moravcik, Craig Burley and Mark Burchill adding the rest.
• Most important win: 2018 Scottish Cup Final – Celtic 2 v 0 Motherwell. Callum McGregor and Olivier Ntcham with the goals to seal the Double Treble.
• Last time Motherwell beat Celtic: 19.12.2015 – Celtic 1 v 2 Motherwell. In Ronny Deila’s final season, Nir Bitton’s opener was cancelled out by a Louis Molt second-half double.