CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA - JULY 23: Nicolas Kühn #10 of Celtic reacts after scoring a goal against Manchester City in the first half of a pre-season friendly match at Kenan Stadium on July 23, 2024 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)
Alistair Johnston joined the thousands of Celtic fans who had a late night as he took in the 4-3 win over Manchester City.
After reaching the semi-finals of the Copa America the Canadian defender has been excused the three match trip to the USA but should rejoin his team-mates when they return to Scotland.
Johnston shouldn’t require too much in the way of pre-season work after the 23/24 season work extended into July but he will be aware of the performances that Tony Ralston is putting in at right-back, after starting all three of Scotland’s matches at Euro 2024.
From the image used Johnston may have been at the match but there has been no mention of his arrival on Celtic’s social media channels.
Nicolas Kuhn got Celtic off to a great start with goals in the 13th and 36th minutes with Kyogo Furuhashi sending Celtic in at the break leading 3-1 when he netted in the 44th minute.
City did pull the score back to 3-3 before the hour mark with Erling Haaland among their scorers but Celtic weren’t to be denied with Luis Palma scoring a 75th minute winner.
Johnston will have a more favourable 9pm kick off time for Saturday’s match against Chelsea.
Celtic : Schmeichel (Sinisalo 46’), Ralston (Donovan 46’), Welsh (Lagerbielke 64’), Scales (Kobayashi 64’), Taylor, McGregor (C) (Anderson 64’), O’Riley, Hatate (Yang 64’), Kuhn (Forrest 46’), Maeda, Kyogo (Palma 64’).
Subs: Bain, Holm, Kwon, Tomoki, Lawal, Murray, Dede, Turley, M. Johnston.
Manchester City: Ortega Moreno (Ederson 46), Lewis (Katongo 64’), Simpson-Pusey, Mbete (Doyle 46’), Wilson-Esbrand (Katongo 64’), Phillips (Susoho 46’), O’Reilly (Perrone 46’), McAtee (Ndala 46’), Bobb, Grealish (Knight 68’), Haaland (C) (Hamilton 68’).
Subs: Carson, Wright, Galvez, Oboavwoduo, Heskey, Fatah, Mfuni, Samuel.
Watched the game and I thought they passed the ball well and put in a good performance although Man City weren’t fielding their strongest team. Let’s hope our board realise that we still need more players in.
Sadly I think our Board will use this as the very excuse not to strengthen. The “but we beat City” defence will be rolled out on top of the usual default phrases.
So the daily sevco are spreading more fake news stories with Wankland on the verge of a move to them.
Sevco to sell gonnae geeze a wee Hudgie for £3 million Tav for another large amount and Comedy Goldson as well with another first team regular thrown in to Hearts to land Wankland,that’s a ot to put together for one player.