St Gallen friendly surprise has Celtic fans teasing the club

By David Walton

July 2, 2019

With the St Gallen friendly taking place at 6:30pm Celtic Park time tonight, the Hoops have surprised many today.

Celtic announced on Twitter that a bounce-game was taking place against St Gallen’s under-21s this morning. Out of nowhere, a team-sheet was released with heavy-hitters on it such as Leigh Griffiths, Scott Sinclair, and Ryan Christie taking part.

Leigh Griffiths is back amongst the goals once again(Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

At the time of writing, Celtic are apparently cruising to a 5-1 lead heading into the break. Only Celtic’s official Twitter account is reporting on the contest. Goals from Ewan Henderson, Scott Sinclair, Leigh Griffiths (x2), and Lewis Morgan have the Hoops flying.

But Celtic supporters have certainly been teasing the account over the surprise nature of the match. Here’s a look at some of the best reaction to the contest so far:

https://twitter.com/SnowBamba/status/1145985977896189952

https://twitter.com/BenTheTim/status/1145987553297747969

Starting XI for St Gallen friendly looks clearer

You can argue whether a closed doors game like this should be reported in the manner it has by Celtic. But if the club is simply looking to keep supporters informed, then why not?

The match this morning gives us a clearer view of what the starting XI could be for this evening’s game against the St Gallen first-team. We now know that big-hitters such as Sinclair and Griffiths surely won’t be involved, for example. For those who haven’t seen the starting line-up for this morning’s game, you can see it below:

We also won’t be seeing Karamoko Dembele or Armstrong Oko-Flex tonight most likely. Both were on the bench as part of just three substitutes named by the Hoops.

The standout prospect tonight is the idea that we could see the Vakoun Issouf Bayo/Odsonne Edouard partnership for the first time. Griff may have scored in his third consecutive match since returning to the fold, but Bayo will want to add to his first goal for Celtic in our last pre-season encounter. Edouard, meanwhile, will ideally want to get off the mark before next week’s Champions League qualifier against Sarajevo.

Christopher Jullien looks set for a debut tonight (Alexandre Dimou/Icon Sport via Getty Images)

Tonight could also let us catch a glimpse of new Bhoys Christopher Jullien and Luca Connell. Both haven’t taken part against St Gallen’s under-21s, and that means we could get a glimpse of them tonight.

Other first-team regulars such as Scott Bain, Kristoffer Ajer, Scott Brown, Callum McGregor, and James Forrest could all feature tonight too.

As for this runaway closed-doors game, Celtic currently look like making it whatever score they want it to be.