The second Brendan Rodgers Celtic era will get off to a quiet start on Wednesday evening.
The Hoops first-team are in Portugal continuing their pre-season preparations. We are expected to face home side Portimonense twice, although details of that are still to be confirmed by either club.
The official Celtic website has Yokohama F. Marinos as our next opponents. The Portuguese clashes may not even qualify as a meaningful fixture.
However, we do know that Celtic will definitely be playing a match of some sort this Wednesday.
Celtic FC SLO John Paul Taylor was recently asked by a supporter whether tickets would be available for the midweek clash.
“It’s closed doors I’m afraid, sorry,” was his reply. (Twitter)
So Celtic will play a match but no supporters will be present. We’ve not even had any word from the club about the game being broadcast live on Celtic TV. 48 hours or so out, you’d have to say that seems unlikely.
Of course, this is no major issue. Games like this are nothing new. Back in early-December, the team played a bounce game against French side Rennes in Portugal.
The game was played without a crowd, and not broadcast live, with supporters having to follow the action via tweets from a few present journalists.
It looks likely that Wednesday will follow the same path. We should get to hear the score, line-up and substitutions, but perhaps not a great deal else.
The Rodgers era will definitely get louder as things go on. For now it’s all about building fitness and match sharpness.
In other news, Brendan Rodgers has told his Celtic players to expect a “punishing schedule” over the next fortnight
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