CELTIC manager Brendan Rodgers is enjoying another good year at Celtic Park in the 2024/25 Scottish Premiership campaign, and 12 games into our league season, we are unbeaten and have picked up eleven wins, with a solitary draw from our clash with a surprisingly impressive Aberdeen.
Having already built up a positive 31 goal difference in those 12 matches, we occupy top spot with 34 points and have recently opened up a two point advantage over our Pittodrie chasers, and we also hold a game in hand over them. If you are into Wrestling betting, you would easily say that Celtic were odds on favourites to win this particular fight.
Excellence In The Champions League
Whilst many in the faithful would have expected a strong start to the domestic season, we are also excelling in the newly revamped 36 team Champions League format, and we are sat in 18th place (the Play Off bracket) with two wins and a draw from our opening four games, and having picked up seven points we are only three points shy of the top eight, who naturally qualify through for the next stage of the tournament automatically.
Wednesday evening’s clash at Parkhead with Club Brugge is obviously now a massive game to our chances of hitting those automatic spots, and if we use our game in hand properly on a few of those sides who are sitting ahead of us in the table, we could draw level on ten points with Manchester City who occupy fifth place.
There are games left to play, and points left to fight for in the league, but we have undoubtedly put ourselves in a very good position to go further this year and victory over Club Brugge would be an additional massive boost on that front. The whole league format appears to be unexpectedly competitive this year and we are already above the likes of Real Madrid, Benfica, PSV and Paris Saint-Germain, so for understandable reasons the optimism surrounding progression is high.
No Room For Complacency
But we certainly cannot count our chickens yet though, and Rodgers was banging that drum hard as he met with the media ahead of the game. His confidence in our ability to pick up yet another positive result in the league stage of the tournament was clear to see in his choice of words, but he was adamant that with the knockout phase so obviously within reach ‘the power of Celtic Park’ could really help push the players closer to, and over the line, and we are clearly looking to build on the fact that we have now won each of our last three home European matches.
Commenting on our progress so far, Rodgers explained that everyone in the camp had been ‘really pleased’ with a return of seven points from a possible 12 so far, and he had been delighted with our performances levels as well – citing the RB Leipzig clash as being the best yet, particularly as we had to come from behind against the Bundesliga side to secure the victory.
And he would dearly love a repeat in this tie to get the stadium rocking again under the lights, and with our actual record in 2024/25 being 19 matches played across all competitions with only one defeat so far, there is every chance that the side will again produce another impressive performance and if we cannot quite pick up the victory and all three points, we can add another draw to our tally.
It should be remembered that although our one defeat was by a very heavy 7-1 goal margin, it was against a very well drilled Borussia Dortmund side, and from our point of view it was just sadly one of those nights at a packed out Signal Iduna Park, and whilst Club Brugge are in decent form themselves this season and will naturally pose their own test, they are no Dortmund and have already lost to them as well this year.
But we are nicely on track for what most believed would be the magic ten points marker that would nigh on guarantee the Play Off qualification stage in the new format, so whilst hitting ten points is the immediate aim, there are still games left and whilst everyone will be dearly hoping that those games become a chase for the additional points that could push us into the automatic qualification spots, whatever happens on Wednesday evening will not define the remainder of the group stage for us.
For now, preparation could not have been better for Rodgers as we have no new injury issues as we head into the game, whilst our visitors are expected to be without at least four of their players, and we could well see the same side that took to the pitch in last Saturday’s 4-1 win away to Hearts.
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