Celtic face Scotland’s in-form side on Sunday afternoon with the dangling carrot of a Scottish Cup Semi-Final down the road. The reigning champions negotiated their first two rounds with relative ease, conceding just one goal in the process, but a bout against Hibs may prove to be a tougher task. At Last Word on Football, we provide our Celtic predicted lineup for this mouth-watering tie.
Celtic Predicted Lineup vs Hibernian
How Celtic have Lined Up Recently
In a 5-2 victory over St Mirren, Kasper Schmeichel unsurprisingly kept his place between the sticks.
Alistair Johnson played alongside Cameron Carter-Vickers, Auston Trusty and Jeffrey Schlupp in defence.
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Callum McGregor, Reo Hatate and Arne Engels formed a midfield three.
Meanwhile, Nicolas Kuhn, Adam Idah and Daizen Maeda started up top.
Celtic’s Recent Form and Tactics
The seven thousand travelling away fans will come into the tie relatively confident. After all, the team is fifteen games unbeaten. In the past two weeks, they have reeled off an Edinburgh derby success story, a late win at Tannadice, and of course, a narrow win over Celtic.
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Admittedly, their victory over Celtic was the subject of controversy as a seemingly legitimate equaliser by Daizen Maeda was ruled out.
Although, since that defeat, the Champions have registered ten goals in two wins against Aberdeen and St Mirren.
At times the defending has been subpar, with St Mirren in particular getting in behind, however with a week on the training ground, that will likely be ironed out.
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There was some brilliant football last week in Paisley. For the Bhoys’ first goal, Idah dropped deep and played a bounce pass to Kuhn. The German subsequently dribbled inside with Daizen Maeda making a darting run.
This led to a big gap on the left-hand side which Schlupp exploited for his first goal in green and white. The loanee from Crystal Palace also set up Yang’s winning header. At first, his signing was met with little enthusiasm but he is proving to be a crucial player in this current squad.
Injuries to Consider
James Forrest and Paulo Bernardo will remain absent meanwhile Liam Scales is set to miss out.
Celtic Predicted Lineup
Kasper Schmeichel
Alistair Johnson
Cameron Carter-Vickers
Auston Trusty
Jeffrey Schlupp
Callum McGregor
Arne Engels
Reo Hatate
Nicolas Kuhn
Daizen Maeda
Jota
