5 hours Ago By [email protected] (Jack Herrall)
The Celtic train is rolling along nicely after a 100 per cent start to the season. And following a five-star display in the Champions League against Slovan Bratislava, it's expected that the next stop will be the Premier Sports Cup semi-finals. But unbeaten Falkirk stand between Brendan Rodgers and a spot in the last four, where his side will face one of Motherwell, Aberdeen or Rangers.
The Bairns have already sprung a surprise in this competition, dumping out sorry Hearts in the last round to set up today's Parkhead showdown. But the champions away from home will present a far more formidable test than the Jambos did, and no one is giving McGlynn's men much hope of upsetting the odds. Rodgers may well ring the changes and Celtic will remain strong as they juggle the domestic charge with European improvements.
Record Sport will be across all the action from Glasgow's East End right here on the LIVE blog. Is rotation likely for Rodgers this afternoon? Celtic have suffered so many Champions League disappointments in opening games I could have cut and pasted some of the columns afterwards. That’s why it’s nice to be able to rip up the script this time.
You know the doom merchants will be quick to write Slovan Bratislava off as duds, but don’t forget they beat Midtjylland on the way and earned the right to play at this level. Sure, they might be the lowest ranked team in the competition and it was a match Celtic were expected to win. But few will have expected the manner of the victory the other night.
Bratislava didn’t look great – but a lot of that was down to the way Celtic played. That’s where the squad comes in – and we’ll probably see it this weekend. I’d expect Rodgers to rotate against Falkirk tomorrow.
He can’t underestimate a side that is in great form in the Championship and who have already put Hearts out of the Premier Sports Cup. Celtic board can ease up on the backslapping There will have been an outburst of backslapping in the Celtic boardroom this week with the Slovan Bratislava bashing a couple of days after announcing bumper financial results. The Hoops are off to a Champions League flier, unbeaten in the league and set for a crack at the last four of the Premier Sports Cup.
It all looks so rosy in the garden the only danger on the horizon is getting hay fever. But the Celtic Park suits shouldn’t be stopping to smell the flowers . They sit pretty right now – but it’s been a thorny path to get here.
And for all the high-fiving going on, there should be the self-awareness to accept lessons must be learned. The board might be feeling pretty chuffed, especially when Brendan Rodgers said on Friday the club had been vindicated its strategy. But it was a cute way of phrasing it.
The manager is the one who has been vindicated. It’s Rodgers who wanted the streamlined recruitment process of buying a couple of £10m players rather than scattering £20m on 10 new faces and hoping one or two came good. Miller's got just the ticket It's a ritual when lower-league opposition pitches up at Parkhead or Ibrox in the cup to ask who has been begging players for briefs.
“Nobody needs a ticket this week for the Falkirk end so that tells you a lot!” laughed Celt turned Bairn Calvin Miller when put to him. Sure enough, the 26-year-old was in the stands himself on Wednesday to watch Brendan Rodgers’ side warm up for today with a 5-1 shellacking of Slovan Bratislava. Every time the net bulged may have brought glee and a gulp in tandem but the attacker is adamant sides bossed by John McGlynn, just like his old gaffer Rodgers, will leave the bus where it belongs in the car park.
Celtic strength there for all to see Celtic fans have long wanted the club to be taken to the next level. When the BBC showed Celtic’s systematic dismantling of Slovan Bratislava to the nation ahead of Manchester City’s game with Inter Milan, on the basis it was a better watch, the club knew it had arrived at its destination. Brendan Rodgers knows, though, that doesn’t allow his players to believe there are other competitions too parochial to be of any concern to them.
“We can never, ever forget ...
the bread and butter,” he said after the league defeat of Hearts. “It’s so important. It’s the lives of so many supporters, especially in Glasgow.
We can never discount that.” The next level means you are charged with the responsibility of being successful at home and abroad. Falkirk stand between Celtic and the potential winning of the first trophy that goes towards a domestic Treble.
When Celtic chairman Peter Lawwell announced the club’s latest set of financial figures, from a different stratosphere to any other club in the country, he included a mission statement. “We must strive for progression as a club as the industry evolves at a remarkable pace,” he said. Lawwell also knows that doesn’t mean lavish cash reserves, and reputational refurbishment in Europe, diminish other competitions to the level of a two-bob irrelevance.
Rodgers could make 11 changes to his starting line-up from the side who created Champions League history by recording their biggest win in the competition. And he’d still field a side containing seven-figure signings and capped players from a variety of countries. Hello! Good afternoon! It's the final game of Premier Sports Cup quarter-final weekend.
Motherwell, Aberdeen and Rangers are already safely through to the final four and all that remains to be determined is whether Celtic or Falkirk join them. Record Sport will have all the build-up, action and reaction, THEN the live semi-final draw, so settle in with us for the afternoon..
