2022-23 UEFA Champions League Group Stage: Celtic vs RB Leipzig

Celtic welcome RB Leipzig to Celtic Park in a must-win Group F showdown in 2022-23 UEFA Champions League.

Victory would see Celtic move off the foot of the table and potentially as high as second depending on Shakhtar Donetsk’s result elsewhere.

RB Leipzig meanwhile can go second with a win if Shakhtar Donetsk fail to beat Real Madrid.

 

Team News

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Kyogo Furuhashi is looking to start for Celtic after he was named as an eventual unused substitute in Saturday’s Scottish Premiership win at St Mirren.

Carl Starfelt and Callum McGregor both remain ruled out with knee injuries, which prevented their participation at the weekend.

RB Leipzig will be without club captain and defender, Peter Gulasci after he suffered a knee injury in their home win against Celtic last week.

Lukas Klostermann, Konrad Laimer (both ankle) and Dani Olmo (knee) remain absent.

 

Stat Attack

• Celtic have lost two of their three previous meetings against RB Leipzig in all UEFA competitions (W1, L2), with both defeats having taken place away in Leipzig.
• RB Leipzig lost their only previous away trip to Celtic in all UEFA competitions, having lost 2-1 in November 2018 in Group B of 2018-19 Europa League.
• None of the three goalscorers in that 2-1 home win for Celtic in November 2018 remain with either club.
• No Celtic player has covered more distance in Group G than Greg Taylor, who has covered 35.3km in three appearances.
• RB Leipzig have completed just 16 of their 62 attempted crosses in Group G this season.

 

Prediction

Having matched RB Leipzig’s intensity in the opening hour of last week’s eventual defeat, Celtic now need to reset after defensive blunders cost them the game on top of poor end product – which has been a common issue for Celtic in their group matches so far.

RB Leipzig meanwhile displayed a menancing edge to their counter-attacking style so it is vital that Celtic display strong defensive awareness when pushing forward, in order to be ready to quickly track back to limit Leipzig’s opportunities to score.

Should Ange Postecoglou’s Hoops indeed make those small steps forward and are more solid at the back, I can see them really fancying the win against an inconsistent Leipzig team, otherwise this surely will be an away win if Leipzig play like they did last week.

Prediction: Celtic 1-2 RB Leipzig

Result: Celtic 0-2 RB Leipzig