Celtic take part in their final Europa League group match as well as their last European game of the year with a visit to Cluj the champions of Romania tonight.
For the Bhoys the game means nothing. We’ve not only secured qualification to the Last 32 round that starts next February but have even gone as far as to have already won the group securing a seeding in the knockout phases by doing so.
But of course, every match involving Celtic is one we as fans want to see the team do well in and this will be no different.
It’s already been confirmed that keeper Fraser Forster after his heroics on Sunday has been left at home along with Tom Rogic, Odsonne Edouard, Callum McGregor, Ryan Christie and the suspended Scott Brown.
That means there is likely to be game-time and maybe even starts for the likes of Leigh Griffiths, Vakoun Bayo, Max Bauer, Craig Gordon and even the forgotten Scott Sinclair.
It’s also a cert that Nir Bitton, Olivier Ntcham and Greg Taylor will start and Boli Bolingoli could get his first run out in months.
A plethora of youngsters have travelled too including the highly touted Karamoko Dembele.
Cluj need a point to secure runners up spot though will likely be going for the win especially with the knowledge that this is a depleted Celtic side.
Lazio can still pip them to the second spot if they win in Rennes and we win tonight.
The thing is although I always want to see Celtic win eliminating Lazio might not be such a bad thing as they for me are clearly a far better side than Cluj and their elimination would mean no chance of them coming back to haunt us should we progress further in the tournament again.
As for Cluj they are currently struggling domestically by their own high standards.
When we last played them in early October they had lost only one of eleven league matches with seven wins and three draws. During that run, they’d scored 28 goals and conceded only 8.
Since then, however, their form has turned and they’ve lost three of nine games with two draws and only four wins scoring 14 and conceding 8 in the process, form which has seen them drop to second spot in the league two points behind our old Europa League sparring partners Astra Giurgiu.
On Sunday they lost 2-1 away at seventh-placed BotoČ™ani with several players rested due to the focus on tonight’s game.
They are heavily dependent on veteran midfielder Ciprian Deac and striker Billel Omrani for goals with the former having scored nine and the latter thirteen so far in this campaign. Of course, we know Omrani well as he hit the net twice against us back in early August when Cluj eliminated us from the Champions League qualifiers and indeed Deac scored himself that night.
Striker Mario RondĂłn who scored against us in the away leg of that tie has struggled since then with only three goals in twenty appearances and has become a serial bench warmer.
So Cluj are a team in indifferent form who offer threats we are only all too aware of.
Once that’s out of the way the draw for the last 32 will be tomorrow.
We can get Apoel, Leverkusen, Shakhtar, Olympiacos or Brugge (confirmed) with the preferred possibilities who are still to be confirmed being AZ, Braga, Gent, Sporting, Malmo, Getafe, Frankfurt, Porto, Razgrad and Roma though they could all be subject to change.
Preference wise I’d say at the moment Apoel, Gent, Malmo and Razgrad would be the easier options but I guess as the old saying goes……….at this stage there are no easy games.
As for a prediction tonight I’ll say a score draw but to be honest, considering the circumstances anything can happen and when it involves Celtic it usually does.
....Always A Tim! 