Still on track for a Champions League playoff place, Celtic welcome basement side Young Boys to Glasgow for their penultimate league phase encounter on Wednesday evening.
While Brendan Rodgers's men are potentially just one triumph away from sealing a knockout spot, their pointless visitors are already consigned to an early elimination.
Match preview
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As embarrassing as Celtic's 7-1 crushing at the hands of Borussia Dortmund was, that Signal Iduna Park pummelling remains the only occasion that Rodgers's side have come out on the wrong end of the scoreline in the revamped 2024-25 edition.
Since being taught a harsh lesson by last season's runners-up - which succeeded an opening triumph over Slovan Bratislava - Celtic have strung together a four-game unbeaten sequence in Europe's premier tournament, although only one of those contests has ended in victory.
In addition to a statement beating of RB Leipzig in November, Rodgers's men have taken three points from three games against Atalanta BC, Club Brugge and most recently Dinamo Zagreb to occupy 21st place in the rankings, only one point shy of a seeded knockout-round playoff berth.
Away from their European commitments, Celtic did not start 2025 as they meant to go on with a 3-0 Old Firm thrashing at the hands of Rangers, but the Scottish Premiership champions have since avoided defeat in five straight domestic games, winning four of them.
The Bhoys most recently saw off Kilmarnock 2-1 in their opening Scottish Cup fixture, a result that marked their seventh straight victory on familiar territory, where they went unbeaten throughout the whole of 2024 after going down 2-0 to Hearts on December 16, 2023, their most recent home loss in any competition.
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While Celtic still have plenty on the line in the final two UCL matchdays, the same cannot be said of their lowly visitors, as Young Boys have also been the whipping boys of this season's competition and are statistically the worst team out of the 36.
Alongside Leipzig and Bratislava - two of Celtic's victims in the league phase already - the Swiss outfit are just one of three teams still on zero points after six matchdays, and their journey in the 2024-25 competition is guaranteed to end at the first hurdle.
A pitiful goal difference of -19 means that YB sit at the foot of the league phase standings in 36th place, and a slice of unwanted continental history could be theirs on Wednesday, as they are at risk of becoming the first team to concede at least five goals in four separate games of one major European tournament.
The man tasked with ensuring that scenario does not materialise is Giorgio Contini, Young Boys' new boss who took charge of his first match on Saturday - a drab 0-0 draw with Winterthur in the Swiss Super League - where his side are languishing in ninth place.
Four of the previous five head coaches of Young Boys have suffered defeat in their opening Champions League fixture - the only man in that sequence to prevail was David Wagner against Manchester United in 2021 - so both history and the form book weighs heavily against one-time Switzerland international Contini.
Team News
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Celtic came out of their triumph over Kilmarnock with no new concerns on the fitness front, meaning that James Forrest should be their only absentee for Wednesday's game; the winger is facing another couple of weeks out with a foot problem.
Midfielder Odin Thiago Holm was dealing with a calf injury but has now joined MLS outfit Los Angeles FC on loan, and in terms of incomings, the hosts are believed to be making progress in their efforts to re-sign Kieran Tierney from Arsenal.
Rodgers will be working with an identical squad for the midweek fixture, though, and it would not be a shock to see the ex-Liverpool boss put out the same starting XI from the Kilmarnock success.
Young Boys are also expected to have most of their troops available, but right-back Saidy Janko (muscle), midfielder Miguel Chaiwa (muscle) and winger Christian Fassnacht (unspecified) are all taking up beds in the infirmary.
Hostilities will be renewed between Young Boys striker Cedric Itten and Celtic this week, as the 28-year-old was on the books at Rangers for two years from 2020 to 2022, but he only played 17 Old Firm minutes while representing the Gers.
Goalkeeper David von Ballmoos has conceded one goal every 33 minutes on average in this season's tournament, but he was replaced by Marvin Keller against Winterthur, and the latter should guard the sticks here too.
Celtic possible starting lineup:
Schmeichel; Johnston, Carter-Vickers, Trusty, Taylor; Engels, McGregor, Hatate; Kuhn, Furuhashi, Maeda
Young Boys possible starting lineup:
Keller; Blum, Zoukrou, Camara, Hadjam; Lakomy, Ugrinic; Virginius, Colley, Monteiro; Itten
We say: Celtic 3-0 Young Boys
Celtic are just one goal away from reaching double digits at home in the 2024-25 Champions League - not since the 1970-71 season have they hit the 10-goal mark in Europe's top tier on their own patch - and Rodgers's men should reach that milestone with ease on Wednesday.
Young Boys might have a new face at the helm, but they remain vulnerable at the back and do not possess the firepower up front to counteract their dismal defending.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Ben Knapton
