Celtic vs Real Madrid LIVE: Champions League team news, line-ups and more tonight
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The 2022/23 Champions League group stage begins tonight and Celtic FC face a tough task in welcoming the reigning champions Real Madrid to Scotland.
Currently sitting top of the Premiership with a 100 per cent record and having conceded just a single goal, Ange Postecoglou’s team will nonetheless know they’ll need to be on top of their game to come away with anything against Los Blancos. Celtic couldn’t have had a better warm-up for this clash though than winning the Old Firm derby 4-0 at the weekend, so spirits will be high.
As for Real Madrid, Carlo Ancelotti’s side have started their LaLiga campaign in similarly imperious fashion with four wins from four, edging past Real Betis 2-1 at the weekend. The likes of Karim Benzema, Luka Modric and Vinicius Jr are all set to play a key role again this season, though Casemiro is a notable absence from last year’s side after his departure to Manchester United.
Follow build-up and all the action from Celtic vs Real Madrid live below:
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Celtic vs Real Madrid latest
Season so far for these teams:
Celtic
It’s six wins from six in the Premiership for the league leaders after beating Aberdeen, Ross Co, Kilmarnock, Hearts, Dundee United and at the weekend, Rangers in the Old Firm derby. They’ve also beaten Ross County in the League Cup, too – and only two goals conceded across that run.
Real Madrid
Almeria, Celta Vigo, Espanyol and Real Betis have all been vanquished by LaLiga’s reigning champions, but they’ve also picked up silverware already. Real beat Eintracht Frankfurt 2-0 in the Uefa Super Cup at the start of the season.
Champions League group stage latest
Tonight is the return of the Champions League “proper”, as they say – the group stage starts here.
The early fixtures so far stand at Dinamo 1-0 Chelsea – which you can follow live right here – and Dortmund are leading 2-0 at home to Copenhagen.
Our game, and the rest of tonight’s, starts at 8pm BST.
Champions League group stage excitement at an all-time low as financial disparity widens
The end of the Champions League group stage can’t come soon enough, because it is impossible not to feel that this season’s will be settled predictably quickly. That is down to much more than the World Cup dictating this penultimate edition of the format, to be changed in 2024, will conclude by the first week of November.
While there are always more surprise results than people expect, most of the super clubs have hugely forgiving paths to their traditional place in the last 16. All of Real Madrid, Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea, Liverpool and even Tottenham Hotspur should get through with ease.
Group C – featuring Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Internazionale and Robert Lewandowski’s return to the Allianz – is the only pool that could be described as an old-fashioned “group of death”. It is an old point in itself now to say the competition used to be full of such challenges, but that makes it all the more relevant. It looks like it has never been as bad. Little wonder that the main intrigue around the draw in Istanbul this week has been over the mid-tier clubs pushing to start remedying prize money.
That points to how none of this is the fault of the group stage as a format, but rather the financial disparity that Uefa and this very competition have fostered and overseen.
Even some of the better individual fixtures are attractive precisely because they are predicated on that economic gap, writes Miguel Delaney.
Champions League group stage excitement at all-time low as financial disparity widens
Even Erling Haaland’s return to Dortmund and other enticing individual fixtures are attractive precisely because they are predicated on that economic gap
What lies ahead for the six British clubs in this season’s Champions League?
The Champions League begins this week with six British sides involved in the action.
Celtic host holders Real Madrid in an eye-catching clash on Tuesday, when Manchester City and Chelsea also start their challenges. Liverpool and Rangers – together in the same group – play on Wednesday, as do Tottenham.
Here we look at the form of the sides facing the British teams – with Chelsea already having got their campaign underway in this evening’s early kick-off.
What lies ahead for the six British clubs in this season’s Champions League?
Celtic host holders Real Madrid in an eye-catching clash on Tuesday
Confirmed line-up for Celtic
And Celtic’s side is now in place too. Two changes from the weekend victory over Rangers for Ange Postecoglou.
CEL XI: Hart, Juranovic, Jenz, Carter-Vickers, Taylor, McGregor, O’Riley, Hatate, Jota, Abada, Giakoumakis
Celtic and Rangers set to provide sorely needed emotional centre to Champions League group stage
Over the last few days, Ange Postecoglou has been drilling his players in a typically expansive gameplan, but it has all come with a new electricity. Tuesday night won’t just be a case of Celtic playing their normal game and refusing to change for anybody. It will instead be a night when the unique atmosphere fits with the usual approach, amplifying it, and they will just go with the mood of adventure.
You only have to walk around Glasgow this week to get a sense of what the Champions League is supposed to be about. The city that staged one of the old European Cup’s first truly mythical finals, when Real Madrid beat Eintracht Frankfurt 7-3 at Hampden Park in 1960, now awaits the return of the 14-time champions with a rare excitement. Across the city, the Rangers players have been playing the Champions League theme on their phones as they head to Ajax, but that’s really all in anticipation of it booming around Ibrox for the visit of Napoli next Tuesday.
This is what the competition is supposed to feel like. One of the Champions League’s first cities, rather appropriately, is this group stage’s emotional centre.
Miguel Delaney previews the opening of the Champions League group stage:
Celtic and Rangers set to provide emotional centre to Champions League group stage
Some of the competition’s greatest moments throughout history have come from clubs outside the elite, but stupefying predictability has overtaken the group phase in recent years
Confirmed line-up for Real Madrid
The Spanish side have named their team plenty early again as they tend to do in Europe.
RMA XI: Courtois, Carvajal, Alaba, Militao, Mendy, Tchouameni, Modric, Kroos, Valverde, Benzema, Vini Jr
Is Celtic vs Real Madrid on TV tonight? Kick-off time, channel and how to watch
Celtic return to the group stage of the Champions League for the first time in five years on Tuesday night.
Ange Postecoglu’s side have made a stunning start to their Scottish Premiership campaign, winning all six of their games and thrashing rivals Rangers 4-0 at the weekend.
But now they face a whole different task altogether as European champions Real Madrid arrive in Glasgow.
Carlo Ancelotti’s side won the competition last year and have been crown champions of the continent four times out of the last seven seasons.
Here’s everything you need to know.
Is Celtic vs Real Madrid on TV tonight? Kick-off time, channel and how to watch
All you need to know ahead of the Champions League clash
Celtic vs Real Madrid: Kyogo Furuhashi fit to face European champions
Celtic striker Kyogo Furuhashi is available for Tuesday’s Champions League clash with Real Madrid but Carl Starfelt will miss out.
Japan forward Furuhashi went off five minutes into Celtic’s 4-0 win over Rangers on Saturday after hurting his shoulder in a challenge with John Lundstram.
However, he was back on the training pitch at Lennoxtown on Monday morning and will compete with his replacement on Saturday, Giorgos Giakoumakis, for a place in the starting line-up.
Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou said: “Kyogo hurt his shoulder and trained this morning. He looked OK so he is available.
“I haven’t made a decision on whether he will play or not but, in terms of him training and doing everything in training, he was fine.”
Starfelt went off with a knee problem early in the second half of Saturday’s derby. Moritz Jenz replaced the Sweden centre-back to make his fifth appearance of the season.
Postecoglou added: “We haven’t had an exact diagnosis. It’s nothing too serious but it will probably keep him out for a couple of weeks.”
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