Celtic’s u-20 side face host club Al Ain in the semi final of the Al Ain Youth International Cup today.
After 1-0 wins over Dinamo Zagreb and Benfica the young hoops face an entirely different challenge today with the match kicking off at 5pm with the temperature in the thirties.
Two clean sheets against quality opposition has been one pleasing feature of the tournament so far with John Kennedy delighted by the way the new look back four of Darnell Fisher, Stuart Findlay, Eoghan O’Connell and Calum Waters have gelled in front of Leo Fasan.
“Mikey has been excellent at left-back”, Kennedy said. “It’s natural that he’ll be a little uncomfortable being right sided on the left but he’s been terrific in this tournament along with the whole defence.
“They’ve given us a real solid base for us to go forward and play. They’ve been solid giving away minimal chances and collected two clean sheets.
“In the last match you could have picked out anyone from the back four or goalkeeper for man-of-the-match. Eoghan and Stuart have struck up a real good partnership, they are looking very solid and are understand each others game.
“They have developed a lot in the last year, the more that they play together the better they are becoming as a partnership.”
The Celtic squad regularly play against European opponents with the coaching staff having to act quickly to get upto date with today’s opponents.
“Al Ain made quite a few changes in their two matches so far but we can see that they have a few very skilful players.
“This game will be very different to what we’re used to. The heat will be a big factor with a 5pm kick-off so we’ll probably have to utilise our squad.
“Al Ain will be used to playing in the heat which gives them an advantage but if we play as we have so far we have enough to win the game.”
Good luck lads.