Celtic vs Cluj tomorrow could see us take one step closer to the holy grail of Champions League football.
After our 1-1 draw in Romania last Wednesday, it’s most certainly advantage to Celtic. James Forrest’s cancellation of Mario Rondon’s opener puts us in a stunning place ahead of tomorrow night’s second-leg.
As it stands, Celtic don’t even need to score at Parkhead against Dan Petrescu’s side. A 0-0 draw would safely see us progress into the playoff round against Slavia Prague. A step closer to validation for Neil Lennon and his appointment as permanent Celtic boss. But there’s no denying a scoreless outcome won’t be on Lenny’s agenda.
But in order to do that, he’s going to have to pick the right team. Four changes were made to the side for the 5-2 rout of Motherwell at Fir Park last Saturday. And here, we take a look at what changes Lenny could make for tomorrow’s mouth-watering contest.
The team
Scott Bain really needs to start stepping things up. He let a poor goal in last week in Romania, and didn’t look too sharp at Fir Park either. Some of his distribution looked ropey after a careless mistake allowed Liam Donnelly to give the Steelmen an early lead. He could do with a positive display and a clean sheet to go with it.
Unfortunately, Hatem Abd Elhamed came off last week in Romania with a knock. It led to him missing Saturday’s victory at Fir Park, with Kristoffer Ajer taking his place. To be fair, if it wasn’t for Ajer marauding down the right and scoring a quick equaliser, Saturday’s match could’ve been a lot more difficult. We’ll go for Elhamed to be one of our big returning players this week.
Boli was troubling again in the first 45 at Fir Park. But, in fairness to the Belgian, he picked things up in the second half. It ended up being a decent enough display from him despite his early worries. He’s sure to get the nod again tomorrow.
At centre-back, Lennon seemed to hint in The Telegraph that Christopher Jullien isn’t, as of yet, a first-choice pick. Lennon hailed the consistency of Ajer and Jozo Simunovic. With both men fit and available as it stands, we’ll go for them to play against Petrescu’s side.
Who drops out for Ryan Christie?
Scott Brown and Callum McGregor really got to grips with Motherwell after 35 minutes on Saturday. The latter in particular was in sublime form going forward along with Olivier Ntcham. One has to drop out for Ryan Christie, who must be a cert to come back in after notching his seventh goal of the season at Motherwell. Ntcham was sensational at the weekend, but Brown and McGregor simply can’t be dropped just now.
Down the right, Forrest will likely be looking to add to his two goals in his last two games. He’s the one that’s put us in such a positive position in this tie. He’ll get his chance to finish Cluj off at Parkhead.
It’s on the other flank that Lenny could have some problems. He stated that Mikey Johnston had a chance of returning this week, and that will hopefully be made clearer at his pre-match press conference. In any case, we’ll stay positive – Johnston over Lewis Morgan, in what could be another game-changing return.
Leigh Griffiths and Odsonne Edouard both netted at Fir Park. In fairness, however, there’s only ever going to be one man starting in this one – Eddy. He was sublime in Romania, as he bullied Andrei Burca and Paulo Vinicius with ease. He’s our first choice at the moment, and Lenny is certain to let him loose this week.
As always, here’s the predicted team in list form:
GK – Scott Bain
RB – Hatem Abd Elhamed
CB – Kristoffer Ajer
CB – Jozo Simunovic
LB – Boli Bolingoli-Mbombo
CM – Scott Brown
CM – Callum McGregor
RM – James Forrest
CAM – Ryan Christie
LM – Mikey Johnston
ST – Odsonne Edouard
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