Bhoys & Bairns in Cup Battle

Bhoys & Bairns in Cup Battle
~~~~~~~~~~ Official TC Match Preview ~~~~~~~~~~


The Bhoys celebrate a successful start to the Champions League campaign on Wednesday

Celtic Park, Glasgow
Sunday, 22 September 2024
15.00 BST

The Hoops' attention returns to the League Cup tomorrow, with a place in the Semi-Finals up for grabs when they host the visit of Championship leaders, Falkirk.

After the highs of midweek as Paradise produced a first class atmosphere that matched the five star performance by the team against Slovan Bratislava, the Bhoys will be looking to avoid any sort of post-Champions League hangover, as they seek to reclaim the one domestic trophy that eluded them last season.

The last time these sides met was in a Scottish Cup Third Round encounter, back in April 2021, which the Bhoys won relatively straight forward, 3-0. Whike both sides are bound to be vastly different from the teams that took to the pitch on that occasion, there will be a level of expectation, but also reason to pause and consider that nothing can be taken for granted against this current Falkirk side.​

April 2021: James Forrest scores in the 3-0 win against Falkirk the last time these sides met

This Falkirk side are in the midst of creating their own slice of history currently, including going through the entire of last season undefeated on the way to getting promoted from League One to the Championship.

The Bairns have not lost a single league game since April 2023, and have carried that into this season also in tremendous form, are high on confidence and know that they are coming into this game as massive underdogs with nothing to lose.

Not only are Falkirk sitting top of the Championship with 5 wins from 5 played so far, they have also defeated two Premiership teams, Dundee United and Hearts, on the way to setting up this Quarter-Final clash.

That all said, the reality is that all the pressure and expectation is entirely on Celtic, and that the visitors will see this as something of a free hit and an opportunity to test themselves against the Bhoys, which could make for an intriguing contest in a one-off Cup game, where anything can happen.

Stats & Facts​

• Celtic are undefeated in the past 12 meetings (W10 D2) between these sides across all competitions since March 2007.

• Fortress Parkhead: The Bhoys have lost just one of their past 32 home games (P32 W27 D4 L1), including having won the last 12 straight across all competitions.

• Falkirk have not lost a single league game since April 2023 - a run standing currently at 43 games unbeaten.

Liam Scales opens the scoring from an Arne Engels corner in the 5-1 win on Wednesday

Team News

Brendan Rodgers has practically a full squad to choose from for this match, with the exception of Luke McCowan who is Cup-tied, having featured for his former club, Dundee, previously in this tournament.

The manager may want to use this match as an opportunity to rotate some of the squad, although it has only been a couple of games since the International break, so it will be interesting to see how the starting XI lines up on Sunday.

As for the visitors, manager John McGlynn has revealed that he could give a first start to Luke Graham, with the on-loan Dundee defender fully fit and ready to go, while the manager as acknowledged that captain Coll Donaldson has been struggling a little this past week, the defender is fully expected to be ready in time to lead his side out tomorrow.​

Referee: Calum Scott

This will be the first time that Scott will be taking charge of a match involving Celtic, and while he has officiated 13 League Cup games previously, he only made his Premiership debut last season.

Celtic's Overall Record
M:0 W:0 D:0 L:0

VAR: Andrew Dallas



~~~~ Head to Head ~~~~

Overall
P:162 W:105 D:31 L:26​

Last 5 Meetings
W W W D D

~~~~ 2022/23 Form ~~~~

All Comps
W W W W W ~ W D W W W​