One eye on Kairat Almaty, but tonight against Falkirk is important | OneFootball

One eye on Wednesday night’s Champions League play-off match, but tonight is in many ways just as important for Celtic…

Callum McGregor of Celtic applauds the fans at full time during the Scottish Premiership match between Aberdeen and Celtic at Pittodrie on 10 August 2025. Photo Stephen Dobsonx PSI/IMAGO

Friday night football comes to Paradise for the first time in a decade this evening as we’re presented with a great chance to kickstart the weekend in some style by beating Falkirk and reaching the last eight of the Premier Sports League cup.

Tonight is a perfect warm-up for the Champions League play-off match next midweek

That would in turn giving us a boost heading into the most vital match of the campaign so far on Wednesday night as Celtic take on Kairat Almaty in the UEFA Champions League play-off round first leg with the match being played at Celtic Park.

That clash with Kairat is the one that all eyes will naturally be focused on, but we can’t afford to take the Bairns lightly as we aim to keep up our winning start to the season. Good luck with anyone trying to predict the Celtic team tonight because Brendan gave little away about that at yesterday’s media conference but did say that he has a full squad to choose from – other than of course Jota who is out until next year.

We want to win every trophy we enter and the Premier Sports League cup, whilst viewed by some as the ‘least important’ of the honours on offer, is still a big deal especially if we want to remain in contention for the treble.

Aberdeen v Celtic – Brendan Rodgers and Kieran Tierney after the Scottish Premiership match between Aberdeen and Celtic at Pittodrie on 10 August 2025. Photo Stephen Dobson PSI (IMAGO)

Celtic get the chance to go through the gears tonight

It’s also the chance to put on the style  and go through the gears after a couple of below par displays in our opening two fixtures of the campaign.Celtic were better at Aberdeen than against St Mirren on flag day but the important thing is that the six points were gathered. Tonight there’s a chance to put in an even stronger showing to set us up for further improvement in midweek as Celtic look to build a big lead ahead of  the away leg a week on Tuesday.

It won’t be easy though as Falkirk will arrive with no fear just as they did at the quarter final stage of the same competition last year, and although we ran out 5-2 winners it was a tough game all the same.

If we play to our strengths I’ve no doubt we’ll win comfortably, and that is what we all crave as we seek an extra confidence booster heading into midweek.

Good luck trying to second guess Brendan’s team selection

I imagine that Brendan might rest one or two from the team that started at Pittodrie and will hope to get the tie comfortable before bringing off more of his starters for Wednesday night. However last year against Falkirk he made more changes and then introduced the top stars from the bench as Celtic were behind in the game at that stage.

Players of Kairat celebrate during third qualifying round of UEFA Champions League football match between SK Slovan Bratislava and Kairat Almaty. Bratislava, Slovakia, August 12, 2025. IMAGO / Branislav Racko

Friday night football doesn’t come to Celtic Park often

Friday night football doesn’t come to Celtic Park often so it’s an experience to saviour tonight and hopefully we set ourselves up for the Kairat Almaty game with a good performance and a comfortable win to spoil Scott Bain’s first visit back to Celtic Park as a Falkirk player.

COYBIG

Just an Ordinary Bhoy

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Celtic in the Eighties by David Potter. Foreword by Danny McGrain. Published on Celtic Star Books on 5 September 2025. Click on image to pre-order.

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