The international break is over and now all our thoughts return to Celtic and the trip up the road to Dundee on Sunday. I watched Liam Scales on Tuesday night playing for Ireland after missing out on the Czechia game due to suspension. Like myself he watched on as Ireland’s World Cup dreams came to an end after a penalty shoot out. Czechia went onto beat Denmark on penalties and are now off to the World Cup.
Now its time for Scales and all the Celtic players to redeem themselves for Celtic on Sunday at Dens Park in Dundee. Before the international break Celtic served up a very poor performance against Dundee United at Tannadice. The 2-0 defeat saw us slip into third in the league and ruin our Sunday. A traffic jam on the way back to Glasgow didn’t help the mood either.
Failure by the Celtic board to sign quality players in a number of transfer windows have seen the team slump to eight defeats this season in the SPFL. Celtic sit in third place going into the game which kicks off at 4:30pm on Sunday and will be shown live on Sky Sports and streamed on Celtic TV.
Before the game on Sunday league leaders Hearts will travel to Livingston and are expected to take all three points. The rangers who sit in second play on Saturday at Ibrox against Dundee United and will be favourites to beat the visitors. Pressure will be high when the Celtic players take to the pitch on Sunday and they need to deliver for the travelling Celtic support and all those tuning in on TV.
Earlier in the season back in October Dundee shocked Brendan Rodgers and Celtic when they beat us 2-0 at Dens Park. None is us knew then the management merry go round Celtic would take us on since then.
When they came to Celtic Park in December it was Martin O’Neill’s last game in charge before the arrival of Wilfried Nancy. Celtic hung on that night for 1-0 win. Maeda’s goal proved enough to separate the teams and end O’Neill’s first stint this season in charge on a win before an emotional send off from the Celtic players and fans on a cold Wednesday night at Celtic Park.
Martin O’Neill was back in the managers hotseat when Dundee returned to Celtic Park for the Scottish cup fifth round tie. Dundee were 1-0 up and the seconds were ticking down when second half substitute Adamu scored the equaliser to bring the game into extra time. Tounekti another second half sub scored the winner to see Celtic progress to the quarter final.
It’s a 50/50 game on Sunday. The Celtic players will need to show us much more at Dens Park than they did in Tannadice this is another must win game if we are to stay in the title race.
Andrew Milne is Editor of More than 90 Minutes & Host of the Celtic Soul Podcast
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