It’s matchday three of the Champions League as Celtic travel to Italy with the task of overcoming Atalanta. Last season’s Europa League winners have impressed already in this competition, recording a goalless draw against Arsenal before defeating Shakhtar Donetsk away 3-0. It’s a major challenge for Brendan Rodgers’ men, as they look to make it two wins from the opening three games. Here at Last Word on Football, we provide our Celtic predicted lineup.
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Celtic Predicted Lineup vs Atalanta
How Celtic have Lined Up Recently
Kasper Schmeichel remains unmoved in-between the sticks. Vilijami Sinsalo will take place on the bench, the back up goalkeeper yet to make a competitive appearance since signing from Aston Villa in the summer.
Alistair Johnson and Liam Scales have been main-stays at right-back and centre back, but Greg Taylor and Cameron Carter-Vickers have missed quite a considerable amount of game time thanks to their respective injuries. Auston Trusty and Alex Valle have filled in.
Callum McGregor has started every match with Paulo Bernardo, Reo Hatate and Arne Engels mainly rotating in front. Although, Luke McCowan has also seen considerable game time from the bench and has impressed.
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Up front the favoured front three has been Nicolas Kuhn, Kyogo Furuhashi and Daizen Maeda. As a triplet, they have lightning pace and will look to be effective on Wednesday evening.
Celtic Recent Form and Tactics
The champions lost their 100% start to the season at the weekend as they drew to Jimmy Thelin’s Aberdeen 2-2. Two goals up and cruising at halftime thanks to goals from Hatate and Kyogo, what would follow shocked the buoyant home support. Ester Sokler and Graeme Shinnie scored a quick-fire double for the visitors. Meanwhile, Duk thought he had made it three, only for his goal to be ruled out for offside.
The league leaders missed a host of chances throughout and walked away without the three points for the first time this season.
On the European stage, it has been more Jekyll and Hyde.
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After a 5-1 victory over Slovan Bratislava to begin the campaign, Celtic travelled to Dortmund full of confidence. They were in an excellent place and had ambitions of getting a result. How things can change quickly.
Seven goals later they left empty handed and embarrassed. Their aggressive out of possession approach was preyed upon, with Karim Adeyemi netting a hattrick.
Up against Gasperini’s man to man system, winning duels will be incredibly important; don’t be surprised to see a less press-dominant approach.
Injuries to Consider
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It’s no new news on the injury front. Cameron Carter-Vickers remains an absentee, meanwhile Greg Taylor will return to training this week, but the trip to Italy comes too soon for him.
Celtic Predicted Lineup
Kasper Schmeichel
Alistair Johnson
Auston Trusty
Liam Scales
Alex Valle
Callum McGregor
Arne Engels
Reo Hatate
Nicolas Kuhn
Kyogo Furuhashi
Daizen Maeda
