Celtic’s u-19 side step into the spotlight tonight against Manchester City in the Next Gen Series at Ewan Fields, home of FC Hyde.
Both clubs lost their opening matches to Marseilles and Barcelona but the head-to-head matches between City and Celtic offers a great chance to get back into contention in the group.
John Kennedy has a full strength squad to choose from with Dylan McGeough making a big impression in just one and a half games since recovering from injury.
With Paul George available again after international duty with Ireland Kennedy has plenty of attacking options to select from and is confident of taking the points from tonight’s clash.
“We’re coming here to win the match, there’s no hiding from that,” the coach stated. “We feel that we have enough good players to take three points and that’s the plan.
“Wherever we play we feel we have the players to challenge any team and that’ll be the approach against Manchester City
“I wouldn’t say that this game is do or die but it’s important that we get something on the board. We’ve put in two decent performances against Marseilles and Barcelona but we’ve not got anything from them so hopefully we can put in a performance and get a result as well.
“Manchester City are a good side, they’ve spent a bit of money and have a mix of English and foreign players.
“We know that if we play the way that we can we’ll give anyone a game. If we can play to our full potential we’ll certainly give them a helluva match and take something.
“The Scotland-England thing will give the game an edge and there’s no hiding from that, hopefully the boys use it positively and push themselves on, give 100%, and if they play as they can I fancy us to take something from the game.”
Against Barcelona Celtic were without Callum McGregor and McGeough with both players available tonight.
The only downside to tonight’s game is that Kennedy’s side have had their last two SPL fixtures postponed but after arranging a bounce game against Hamilton Accies the hoops coach is looking on the positives from a fortnight’s break.
He added: “The players have had plenty of time to recover from any knocks they’ve been carrying. They’ve trained really well and are looking forward to this match and are fully focussed.
“Hopefully the rest period will have them going into this game at 100%. Sometimes when you are playing every week you might just be at 90% but the rest should have them going in with a full tank.
“We have good players in the squad who have a hunger to go out and show that they can play at this level.
“We’ve got a strong squad to pick from and whoever is on the bench will give us options to change the game. The match is about the full squad that is here and they’ll all take something from this competition.”
You can follow tonight’s action on twitter. Celtic are back in SPL action against Inverness Caley Thistle at the Barrowfield on Saturday with a 1 pm kick off. On Saturday leaders Hearts lost at home to St Johnstone while Rangers held Aberdeen to a draw at Murray Park leaving the Ibrox side with five points from five games.
Celtic’s postponed match with Rangers has been resheduled for December 17 at Murray Park.
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Best wishes to the young guns tonight, another very tough fixture. But I am sure they will do the club proud and the experiences gained from such a tourney will be invaluable to them in future.
Congrats to the wee bhoys. A Celtic team winning away in Europe? Have I died?
Great result boys. Watt, McGeough and George shld be in about the first team squad.