Celtic Stars on International Duty – The Story So Far

As the World Cup in USA, Mexico and Canada draws closer, teams around the globe are in the final stages of their qualifying desperate to get to next summer’s competition, while several countries have already secured their places at the tournament.

Firstly, turning our attention to Scotland, Celtic duo Anthony Ralston and Kieran Tierney were both involved for Steve Clarke’s squad in matches against Greece and Belarus, with Ralston starting at right-back in Sunday’s sluggish 2-1 victory against the Belarusians.

As a result, and with Denmark’s 3-1 win over Greece, Scotland have guaranteed at least a play-off position in March. Clarke’s side will now face Kasper Schmeichel’s Danes to determine the group winners at Hampden next month should Scotland take points off Greece in Athens. Celtic’s shot-stopper featured in both of his country’s matches, captaining his national team and helping them earn six points.

Sadly, Republic of Ireland defender Liam Scales was forced to withdraw from the squad following a family bereavement, ruling him out of the clash with Portugal and the Irish’s upcoming fixture against Armenia this evening. Ireland fell to a 1-0 defeat in Lisbon over the weekend after conceding a late goal from Ruben Neves. Our thoughts and prayers are with Liam and his family.

Benjamin Nygren and Viljami Sinisalo remained on the bench for Sweden and Finland. Both are expected to be unused substitutes for tonight’s matches against Kosovo and Malta, respectively.

Tunisia, already secured of their place at both the African Cup of Nations and the World Cup, have been using friendly matches to fine-tune their preparations. Despite Hoops winger Sebastian Tounekti being forced to withdraw from the Tunisian squad for the game against São Tomé and Príncipe because of injury, the 23 year-old summer signing played 45 minutes in his country’s 3-0 victory over Namibia yesterday.

Similarly, Uruguay recorded a 1-0 win over the Dominican Republic, with Marcelo Saracchi wearing the captain’s armband and completing the full match under the guidance of former Leeds manager Marcelo Bielsa. The Celtic loanee also started in Uruguay’s 2-1 win over Uzbekistan, taking his international caps total to 10.

As tournament hosts, the United States faced Ecuador in a friendly, with Cameron Celtic centre-back Cameron Carter-Vickers remaining on the bench for Mauricio Pochettino’s side. The defender will be aiming to get some minutes under his belt against Australia tomorrow night.

Daizen Maeda sat out Japan’s game against Paraguay because of a minor niggle and will also be unavailable for the Samari Blue’s encounter with Brazil this morning after experiencing tightness in his left foot. That’s certainly a concern for Brendan Rodgers as he waits his full squad returning to Lennoxtown.

Celtic academy graduate Colby Donovan delivered an outstanding performance for Scotland U21s in their 12-0 triumph over Gibraltar at Dens Park, providing three assists in the emphatic victory.

A few have suffered bumps and bruises over the past week, but let’s hope they will all be fresh, reinvigorated and ready to go for Sunday’s Scottish Premiership encounter against Dundee at Dens which is live on Sky Sports.

Conor Spence