MARTIN O’NEILL has brought in Finnish keeper Viljami Sinisalo among a raft of changes before tonight’s Europa League play-off second leg against VfB Stuttgart in Germany.
Kasper Schmeichel drops to the stand-by squad and, interestingly, the Celtic interim manager starts with Japanese double-act Reo Hatate and Daizen Maeda.
With the game at Ibrox on Sunday in mind, it was thought the pair might get places on the substitutes’ bench.
Kieran Tierney, Liam Scales and Benjamin Nygren, scorer of the consolation goal in the 4-1 first leg defeat last week, are among those who will miss the 5.45pm kick-off.
TEAM: Sinisalo; Donovan, Murray, Trusty, Saracchi; McCowan, McGregor, Hatate; Yang, Adamu, Maeda. Subs: Schmeichel, Scales, Nygren, Cvancara, Tounekti, Bernardo, Forrest, McArdle, Iheanacho, Hatton, Ralston and Tierney.
Earlier today, we asked how much you could remember about Celtic’s German connections in the past in CQN’s fun five-minute quiz to test your knowledge.
Now we repeat those questions and provide the answers.
ON THE BALL…Celtic’s record £2.3million signing in 1995, German forward Andreas Thom. (See Question 4.)
QUESTIONS:
1: Celtic signed German international Andreas Hinkel for £1.9million in January 2018 from which club: A: Stuttgart, B: Sevilla or C: Sporting Lisbon?
2: Can you name the German defender signed by Brendan Rodgers in January 2018 at a cost of £1million from RB Leipzig and who played just one game for the Hoops?
3: Outwith Nicolas Kuhn and Jeffrey Schlupp, who was the last German-born player to turn out for Celtic?
4: Tommy Burns paid a-then record £2.3million to sign a German striker from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer of 1995. Can you name the player?
5: Brendan Rodgers signed which German-born right-back on loan from Borussia Dortmund in January 2019?
ANSWERS:
1: B: Sevilla.
2: Marvin Compper.
3: Moritz Jenz, who signed on loan from FC Lorient in the summer of 2018.
4: Andreas Thom.
5: Jeremy Toljan.
Well done if you got five out of five. Go to the top of the class.
* DON’T miss the unbeatable match report from VfB Stuttgart v Celtic this evening – only in your champion CQN.
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