Celtic’s First League Match Opponents In Good Form | OneFootball

Pre-season is all about fitness and getting up to speed for the competitive stuff beginning. For fans it’s also a time for looking at transfers and seeing how the team can be improved ahead of a new campaign.

In Celtic’s case, the fitness levels look sharp and performances have been encouraging. However, inbound transfer activity has been low key. Due to our inactivity, in terms of buying, and no marquee signing arriving yet – some supporters have turned their attention to others in the league.

Tonight, theRangers beat Greek outfit Panathinaikos 2-0 in the first leg of a Champions League qualifier – a good result, but one which doesn’t reflect the number of golden chances missed by the away side. Aside from our closest title challenger, Hoops fans may place some attention on our first competitive opponent this term, St Mirren.

The Buddies have been in great form since reporting back for duty in June. Their pre-season commenced at the end of that month, with a 4-0 win over Dumbarton. Then the Paisley club beat MK Dons 2-1 and Airdrieonians 2-0, before being held to a 0-0 draw at Arbroath in the opening group game of the league cup (Arbroath won on penalties).

St Mirren narrowly beat Forfar in the next League Cup game, before demolishing Annan Athletic 8-2 in the same competition last weekend. They host Ayr United this week, in their final group game, before the league season begins at Paradise.

While Celtic have superior players and resources to the rest of the country, and as such it is mainly down to their own performance when it comes to determining the outcome of SPFL matches, their flag day opponents will come into the fixture in good form – unbeaten in 90 minutes (as it stands). Therefore, the Bhoys will need to stay sharp to break down what will no doubt be a stubborn defence and come away with the spoils to start the season in style.

Before then, there is one more friendly for Celtic to play, in order to fine tune performances. Indeed, the Hoops face Ajax in the Como Cup on Thursday.