Daizen Maeda On Bench – Celtic Team vs Hibernian Confirmed
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Fixture: Celtic vs Hibernian
Competition: Scottish Premiership
Kick-off: 15:00 UK time
Martin O’Neill has picked his Celtic lineup vs Hibernian for this afternoon’s Scottish Premiership encounter between the two teams at Celtic Park.
O’Neill saw his Celtic side blown away by Stuttgart in the Europa League earlier this week, suffering a 4-1 loss which left a Bhoys legend believing a goalkeeping change could have been put in place earlier this season, amid big criticism of Kasper Schmeichel.
In truth, Celtic likely did not feel in a place to go on a deep Europa League run given the issues which have gripped the team this term.
With the Scottish Premiership title race a three-way affair, O’Neill may welcome the chance to focus on it without any distractions.
Keeping Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain fit could be hugely important and one journalist recently suggested he needs no more than 60 minutes in today’s game against Hibernian.
O’Neill will not underestimate Hibernian and has admitted that when the Bhoys played them in his first spell earlier this term they caused real problems.
Hibernian arrive at Celtic Park sitting in fifth spot in the Scottish Premiership table and needing to close an eight-point gap to Motherwell in fourth.
They beat St Mirren 2-0 last time out, but recently lost 1-0 to Hearts and held Rangers 0-0, having met two of the title contenders in recent weeks.
The earlier meeting between Celtic and Hibernian at Celtic Park this season, in September, finished in a 0-0 draw.
In goal in the Celtic lineup vs Hibernian today is Kasper Schmeichel, with a four in front of him of Julian Araujo, Auston Trusty, Liam Scales and Kieran Tierney.
O’Neill will want to see Celtic dominate midfield and in the engine room he picks Callum McGregor, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Benjamin Nygren, while Yang and Sebastian Tounetki support Tomas Cvancara up top.
There are options for O’Neill to call for off the bench to change his Celtic lineup vs Hibernian at any point and they include Daizen Maeda and James Forrest.
Celtic Lineup vs Hibernian
Schmeichel, Araujo, Trusty, Scales, Tierney, McGregor, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Nygren, Yang, Tounekti, Cvancara
Substitutes: Sinisalo, Adamu, McCowan, Saracchi, Maeda, Hatate, Arthur, Forrest, Donovan
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