Celtic welcome Real Betis to Celtic Park in their final Group G match of 2021-22 Europa League, as both teams look to finish the stage on a high.
With all four positions in Group G already sorted as Celtic drop into the Europa Conference League whilst Betis advance to Round of 32, both teams are simply playing for pride in this game.
Team News
Cameron Carter-Vickers is suspended for Celtic after having collected three bookings in their five group matches so far in this stage.
Karamoko Dembele (ankle) won’t be risked unless he is fully match fit but Georgios Giakoumakis, Christopher Julien (both knee) and Jota (hamstring) are ruled out.
Real Betis could be without Martin Montoya after the defender was absent in the last fortnight with an ankle injury.
Claudio Bravo, Youssouf Sabaly, Victor Camarasa (both muscle) and Nabil Fekir (suspension) are ruled out.
Stat Attack
- Celtic lost their only previous meeting against Real Betis in all competitions – losing their opening Group G match 4-3 in September 2021.
- Real Betis are playing away to Scottish opposition for the first time but failed to win in three previous visits to teams based in Great Britain (D1, L2).
- Both of Celtic’s two penalties in this group have been scored by Josip Juranovic.
- Six of Real Betis’ 10 Europa League goals have been scored in total by Juanmi, Borja Iglesias and Cristian Tello, who have all scored two goals apiece.
- This is the first match involving Celtic to be refereed by Daniel Stefanski, although Betis drew their previous away match refereed by Stefanski at Olympiacos in September 2018.
Prediction
With nothing to play for in this match, it will be interesting to see how Angel Postecoglou approaches this game in terms of selection, although their defence in European competitions have been poor so a tight defence is crucial to heading into the Europa Conference League on a high.
Real Betis though have only been marginally better defensively but have won their last five matches in all competitions, so will come here full of confidence looking for a sixth win.
On that note, Celtic’s defence feels like it will be crucial to getting a result but I suspect their focus is already on domestic competitions, so am going for an easy away win.
Prediction: Celtic 0-2 Real Betis
Result: Celtic 3-2 Real Betis