Celtic bulldozed past FC Astana in the first leg of the Champions League playoffs with relative ease which was played at the Celtic Park earlier this week. In what was a one-sided affair, the Celts outclassed the Kazakhstan based outfit in every aspect as they went on to bang five goals without conceding any.
Looking at how they have plied their trade, it goes without saying that they would be keen to maintain their domestic superiority and also aim to carve something substantial in the Champions League. The Bhoys are due to make a trip to Rugby Park on Saturday to face Kilmarnock in their third league game of the season.
The Killie would enter the game as the underdogs, having failed to secure even a single point in the Scottish Premiership so far. Besides, Brendan Rodgers’ men comprehensively defeated Lee McCulloch’s troops in the League Cup, but having said that, we do anticipate Rodgers dishing out a strong side.
Defence
Craig Gordon is expected to be used as the custodian once again. The 34-year-old has kept three clean sheets in his last three games and is undoubtedly high on confidence.
Erik Sviatchenko and Dedryck Boyata are out with knee injury and thus, ahead of Gordon, we anticipate the central defensive duo of Nir Bitton and Jozo Simunovic to be used. These two have looked good together and Rodgers is unlikely to make any ramification.
From the left-back slot, Kieran Tierney is likely to start and in the right-back slot, Mikael Lustig should be engineered owing to Christian Gamboa’s injury.
Midfield
Scott Brown might be rested for the game, and we are expecting Olivier Ntcham and Stuart Armstrong to start off the proceedings from the central midfield. While Ntcham has started to blend with his teammates, Armstrong will be the one who would be keen to assert his dominance in the middle of the park.
As the no.10, we are likely to see Callum McGregor getting back into the starting lineup once again after Tom Rogic was handed a start against Astana.
Attack
Moussa Dembele’s injury hasn’t really hurt the Hoops as Leigh Griffiths has been constantly banging goals and creating havoc in the defence of the opposition. Griffiths is expected to spearhead the attack once again.
On the right-wing, we feel that Jonny Hayes would be given the nod ahead of James Forrest and on the left-wing, we expect Scott Sinclair to put his audacious offensive productivity on display yet again.
