Ange Postecoglou has named his Celtic side for their clash with Hibs at Easter Road - making six changes in the process.
The Hoops have been relentless in their charge for the League Cup and Scottish Premiership crown so far but have not won in their last two games as they target a return to winning ways ahead of the Scottish Cup Final. The Parkhead side are in pole position to land a Treble with Inverness the opposition at Hampden in early June, alongside two more league games including this one left to land a spot in the starting team.
Lee Johnson and Hibs still have ambitions of European football and will be out to get all three points after losing out to Michael Beale and his Rangers side in the capital on Sunday. Speaking ahead of this one, the Celtic boss said: “I want to give guys game-time so we can be ready for the cup final but I’ve not learned anything in the last period that I didn’t already know. The one thing I do know is this squad are champions, which is a pretty good feeling.
READ MORE: Ange Postecoglou details Dermot Desmond Celtic 'regular contact' after meet up with supremo
“That’s what we set out to do and we’ve done it so there’s nothing else I need to know really other than that we’ve been outstanding this season.
“We’ve won one competition, we’ve won another competition and we’ve got the opportunity to win another competition, so everything I need to know is right there.
“I don’t want to go into a cup final and we get an injury the week of the game and someone hasn’t played for six or seven weeks.
“Once we won the title, I wanted to use this time to get game-time into guys and make sure whatever happens between now and the cup final we have guys that have played games fairly recently.
“We’ve had one game a week for quite a while and we’ve had guys who haven’t played in a long time. I was very keen to get as many guys some game-time so that when we come to the cup final week we hopefully have a healthy squad but also a squad that’s actually played some football recently.
“That means whatever line-up I come up with, there isn’t someone that hasn’t played for five or six weeks.”
CELTIC XI: Bain, Ralston, Starfelt, Kobayashi, Bernabei, Iwata, McGregor, Hatate, Abada, Haksabanovic, Oh
Subs: Hart, Taylor, Kyogo, Turnbull, Jota, O'Riley, Maeda, Forrest, Welsh
READ NEXT:
- Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou named on SFWA four-man shortlist for Manager of Year award
- Celtic kid Dylan Corr to join Raith Rovers as B team star pens pre-contract at Stark's Park
- Celtic 'deal in' Scott Bain as Hoops back-up commits future to Ange Postecoglou's champions
