Celtic will travel to Rugby Park on Friday night to take on Kilmarnock in the Scottish Premiership. The Hoops have a pretty healthy lead at the top of the table right now and won’t be too worried by Rangers’ recent resurgence after a bad run of form. Celtic hold a 10-point lead at the top of the table over Aberdeen and look to be cruising on to the title. Brendan Rodgers’ boys are yet to be beaten in any domestic competition so far and look unbeatable right now.
Celtic have 31 points from 11 games while Killie are struggling this campaign. They find themselves 7th in the table with just 14 points. Celtic have an excellent record against Killie winning 32 of their 39 games against them. They have also won in eight of their last ten meetings while the other two ended as draws. The two sides met each other earlier this season and Celtic won the game 6-1 at Parkhead. Dembele scored twice in that game while Rogic, Forrest, Sinclair and Griffiths scored one each.
Team news
Kilmarnock
Striker Kris Boyd was ruled out for up to eight weeks with a thigh injury. Scott Boyd and Steven Smith have both shaken off injuries but Miles Addison (foot) is a major doubt. Charlee Adams and Callum McFadzean are back in training but might not make the squad following injury, while Dean Hawkshaw has stepped up his rehabilitation from a knee injury. Greg Kiltie and Dapo Kayode (both hamstring) remain out.
Celtic
Celtic had 14 players on international duty with Australia midfielder Tom Rogic and Honduras left-back Emilio Izaguirre only returning to Glasgow on Thursday. Both could miss the game. Cristian Gamboa and Nir Bitton came back from international setups early and both are in contention to start the game. Mikael Lustig is a doubt for the game. Kolo Toure is out while Jozo Simunovic is back.
Predicted lineups
Kilmarnock (4-4-2): MacDonald; Hendrie, Boyd, Addison, Taylor; McKenzie, Smith, Dicker, Jones; Tyson, Coulibaly
Celtic (4-2-3-1): Gordon; Gamboa, Sviatchenko, Simunovic, Izaguirre; Brown, Armstrong; Forrest, McGregor, Sinclair; Dembele
Key players
Kilmarnock- Souleymane Coulibaly
The Ivorian has been in decent form this season having scored 6 goals from 13 games this season. He will be the biggest threat to Celtic’s defence tonight.
Celtic- Moussa Dembele
The French wonderkid has been making the headlines with Celtic week in week out and had a brilliant international break with the French under-21 side.
Odds
Kilmarnock win – 14/1
Draw- 7
Celtic win- 1/7
