Celtic haven’t been at their fluent best lately but thankfully the Europa League draw has been kind with Neil Lennon’s men travelling to Latvia to take on Riga FC in the third qualifying round.
Again, it is a one-off game with the winner progressing to the next round to take on either Sarajevo or Budućnost Podgorica away from home in the final play-off fixture.
It’s frustrating that neither game is at Parkhead but we should still have enough to make it to the group stages once again, anything less would be considered a failure, whether or not you see European football as a distraction this season is another matter.
This is the team I would go with to see us left with just one more hurdle to overcome.
The gaffer may have been deploying a 3-5-2 since Shane Duffy arrived but we just haven’t looked as solid recently and by sacrificing a forward for an extra midfielder, Celtic should be able to dominate possession and subsequently, chances.
The full-backs will still be able to contribute to the attack with Moi Elyounoussi and Ryan Christie both likely to tuck in when we have the ball to link up with Olivier Ntcham and Odsonne Edouard.
3-5-2 or 4-2-3-1 against Riga?
3-5-2
4-2-3-1
The Frenchman sat out the weekend’s win against Livingston and should be good to go, his relationship with Ntcham has been a key one on the continent before and their movement should cause the Lativan champions problems.
Riga shouldn’t cause Celtic too many problems, however, they did beat FC Copenhagen earlier in the qualifying, a sloppy start could be costly but after the last couple of domestic fixtures, Lennon should have his players ready to go from the first whistle.
As for predictions, a solid and professional 2-0 away win to take the Hoops safely into the next round with Edouard and Elyounoussi the scorers.