MY ACCOUNT
Celtic Park will be rocking on Tuesday night as the Scottish giants return to the Champions League group stage with the ultimate first test against the reigning champs.
It could not be a tougher start for Ange Postecoglou’s men as they kick off their Group F campaign at home to record 14-time winners Real Madrid.
The Bhoys have every right to feel confident given the perfect start they have made to their domestic season, with six straight wins culminating in Saturday’s magnificent 4-0 dismantling of Old Firm rivals Rangers.
But mighty Madrid have also enjoyed a flawless beginning to their campaign. They beat Eintracht Frankfurt to lift the Super Cup and have already pulled clear in La Liga with four wins out of four.
Team news
Madrid are at full strength for the trip to Glasgow with Carlo Ancelotti ready to make one or two tweaks to the side that won 2-1 against Real Betis on Saturday.
Celtic head coach Postecoglou has one or two more headaches with centre-back Carl Starfelt and top scorer Kyogo Furuhashi limping out of the Old Firm game with injuries.
The stats
Celtic have played seven, won seven this season, scoring 29 goals with 12 different players finding the target.
This is their first appearance in the group stage since 2017-18 and the last time they qualified from the group phase into the knockout rounds was 2012-13.
For Real Madrid, this is more than familiar territory. The record 14-time winners have appeared in every group stage since 1997-98 — another record — and go into this season’s competition as reigning champions, and also in good form.
Los Blancos kicked off the season with a 2-0 win over Frankfurt in the Super Cup and they have won all four of their league games to date, while talisman Karim Benzema has three goals to his name already.
Prediction
Celtic could not have asked for a harder or more prestigious start to their Group F campaign, one which ultimately is more likely to be decided by their results against RB Leipzig and Shakhtar Donetsk than how they deal with Real Madrid.
Having said that, Postecoglou’s big-priced outsiders are playing well, scoring goals and adamant they fear no one. The question is, can they deliver on the night against a side dripping in European pedigree and masters of taking the wind out of any aspiring side’s sails.
Celtic score goals for fun domestically but Real Madrid are not Ross County and a defence marshalled by the likes of David Alaba and Antonio Rudiger is countless times better than anything the Scottish league leaders have faced so far this season.
Real have still conceded in each of their four league games, exactly one goal in each of them, and have not been leading at half-time in three of those four tussles.
With Celtic set to limit their endeavour to stay in the game, maybe expect the half-time draw or the draw-Real Madrid half-time/full-time result.
