Welcome one and all to what is one of the last pre-season match threads before the season kicks off for real against Man City away (for us anyway, seeing as the Bhoys have already started their campaign!). 03/08/2011 - 7PM Swansea City vs Celtic FC The Liberty Stadium Tickets 25 pound (or 35 pound for a combined ticket for the Celtic/Betis games) For travel information useful for travelling fans, click here ---------------------------- A little info on the opponents lifted from Wikipedia; Glasgow Celtic FC is a Scottish football club based in the Parkhead area of Glasgow, which currently plays in the Scottish Premier League. The club was established in 1887, and played its first game in 1888. Celtic have won the Scottish League Championship on 42 occasions, most recently in the 2007â08 season, the Scottish Cup 35 times and the Scottish League Cup 14 times. Celtic's home stadium is Celtic Park, the biggest football stadium in Scotland, with a capacity of 60,832. Together with their Glasgow rivals, Rangers, they form the Old Firm, one of the most famous and fierce rivalries in sport. The club's traditional playing colours are green and white hooped shirts with white shorts and white socks. ------------------------------------ With the season fast approaching, and already upon us if you travel north through two borders, Brendan Rodgers will hope this game will provide a stern examination of his squad before the Real Betis game shortly afterwards. The Swans are fresh back from a training camp in Austria, where they played FC Baku and the United Arab Emirates Olympic Squad (a win and a loss respectively), but will not be too concerned about those results as the trip has been deemed a success, and by all accounts was more to do with bonding the players together ahead of the new season. The Swans will also be "bhoyed" (see what I did there? ) by the arrival of new signings Leroy Lita and Wayne Routledge, who are due to be confirmed as Swansea players before the game. Celtic have already started their assault on the SPL, gaining a 2-0 win at Easter Road over Hibernian, before losing to Inter Milan 2-0, then beating a League of Ireland Select XI 5-0. They will be hoping to gain a result at the Liberty, but a partisan crowd is unlikely to make things easy on a squad which could include Joe Ledley, Adam Matthews, and maybe even Craig Bellamy if you believe everything you read in the gossip columns. ------------------------- This will be Swanseas first game back at the Liberty since THAT night against Forest, so will be looking to get back into the swing of winning in front of their own fans. After the loss to Craig Bellamy FC at the Liberty last season, the Swans closed the season out with 7 wins and 2 draws at the Liberty, including some memorable performances against Leeds, Norwich, Ipswich, Sheffield Utd and Nottingham Forest (twice!). Celtic will want to gain a mental boost to aid their pursuit of the SPL title, but at the same time they will not want to risk too many big name players I feel, given the importance of wrestling the league title off their bitter rivals Rangers, so we could well see a second string Celtic team...much to the chargrin of a sizeable percentage of Swans fans who feel this friendly is slightly overpriced. Not being in the country, I feel both unable and unqualified to comment on this, but I have to say I would like to think I'd get the combined ticket for both games if I was in a position to attend. ---------------------- Brendan Rodgers' pre-match comments; Neil Lennon's pre-match comments; ---------------------------------------------- Completely guessed Swansea City FC Lineup Moreira Rangel Williams Caulker Taylor Britton Allen Dyer Dobbie Sinclair Graham Completely guessed (by Bhoy From Brum AKA The REAL Deal) Celtic FC lineup (thanks for that!) Zaluska Cha Matthews K.Wilson Mulgrew Forrest Maloney Brown McCourt Samaras Rasmussen ------------------------------------ Key Battles; Dyer & Sinclair vs Celtic's fullbacks. Obviously these players may not even start, but if past showings are anything to go by, this is going to be interesting to watch. Celtic have in Izaguirre one of the highest rated fullbacks in British football, but could be unlikely to play, so it'll be good to see how Nathan and Scotty fare against whoever they face. As the game goes on, We might see (for the Swans) Wayne Routledge feature on one wing, while Adam Matthews is also likely to feature for the Hoops. It will be interesting to see if, now we have a striker who can head the damn thing, Dyer and Sinclair have been instructed to occasionally hit the byline and cross high... given that we haven't utilised that approach so much over the last few years I thought Bucks comments about Luke Moore and Danny Graham looking good in the air in training was interesting. If we are to succeed this season, we will need to be strong defensively AND offensively from set pieces/crosses. Celtic would probably appreciate a bit of an aerial work-out, seeing as (and shoot me if this assumption is well wide of the mark) the SPL isn't home to an abundance of footballing teams, so a few crosses and corners to deal with would probably help them out too. ------------------------------------ Obviously there's not as much to be said about friendlies as there is about competetive games, but this should prove a good opportunity for fringe players to stake a claim, as well as new signings being given a chance to bed in to the team. For the Swans Leroy Lita and Wayne Routledge will be hoping to get 20 or 30 minutes game time each, surely... and Celtic will be looking to give Adam Matthews, Kelvin Wilson and Victor Wanyama time on the pitch with their new team mates. I'm hoping for a good attendance for this game, and while the PL feelgood factor should stretch to a decent crowd, I don't see it being packed to the rafters. Does anyone know how ticket sales have been going? It'd be interesting to see. Are there many Hoops fans planning on making the long trip south? I can't say I'd blame you if you didn't fancy it, especially given that your league season is already underway! Scottswan's completely random (and normally ill fated, but sometimes spot on! but more often than not ill fated...) prediction... Swansea City 3 - 1 Celtic FC Hoping for a good game, and for a good evening out for all! Wish I was there... STID.
I don't think they'll start, and they aren't confirmed as SCFC players yet. I'd imagine they'll start on the bench. Routledge might get 45 mins but I imagine more like 30, which is what I expect Lita to get seeing as Graham is probably going to be no1 striker barring Lita excelling in training immediately.
Mate Loovens is one of Celtic worst defenders in years, ask any of their fans, they will agree that he is a donkey.
If it's true I retract my statement! Just going off vague memories in my head on that one to be honest and should have done some research. Like I said, it's a friendly and on top of that I'm in work. One slight misjudgement in all that isn't bad though!
He is incredibly unpopular with the Celtic fans if you are going to get anything from the game Swansea should focus on putting him under pressure.
Is Craig Beattie still at Swansea ??? Was a good prospect with us in his younger days , played for Rangers first !!!!! Kept getting injured in his hoop days but scored a couple of important goals , even started a champions league match against Barcelona
I bet you were expecting Celtic fans to comment on this thread eh? Welcome to the Celtic-obsessed world of the Rangers fan. Anyway, I can't see Celtic going with the same line up as we started against Hibs. Lennon has chopped and changed the team about quite a bit during the friendly season and I expect to see a couple of the younger players like Matthews and Twardzik (either one) starting the game. Also think he'll start with Samaras up front with A N Other. Is the game on any channel, inc. streaming?
He had ****ing cheese straws for legs. Never known a player to get injured standing still. Well apart from Maloney.
You look at that lineup of celtics and there are 4 maybe 5 players who left championshp clubs to ply their trade north of the border: Ledley, Loovens, Commons, Hooper, and isnt adam matthews up there from cardiff also. it will be like a local derby
not going to pay £25 to watch a kick about, the club is taking the piss charging fans that, spurs fans are staying away from their friendly game also in protest of their club charging £25, there wont be that many going because of the price and who can blame them.
It's ridiculous isn't it? These games are there to allow managers to assess players and for the players to get match fitness. I could understand a flat fee of say a fiver or even a tenner to cover costs of policing and stewards etc. but £25? Shocking.
Ah I'm aware that Celtic will probably field a weakened lineup, but I figured I might as well use the last league lineup, because I don't know enough to comment. If a Celtic fan suggests a likely sounding lineup I'll edit it in.
Zaluska Cha Matthews K.Wilson Mulgrew Forrest Maloney Brown McCourt Samaras Rasmussen Sure Brown is suspended for the next game so Ki etc will be rested for the league game. Hope to see Rasmussen get a run so Lenny have a second look at him in case all else fails. This is a guess of the team - he could well start his strongest team and make changes at halftime.
Can't imagine both Matthews and Du Ri will start as they're both right-backs so one would have to play at LB (or central defence with Mulgrew at LB). That midfield is very flimsy too. And Rasmussen's out on his arse so doubt he'll start either. Other than that - spot on Brum
