Celtic v AC Milan – Team News, Predicted Starting XIs and Where to Watch
· Yahoo Sports
Celtic take on AC Milan at Celtic Park this afternoon in the final friendly match of the summer with the Scottish Premiership season starting a week on Monday with a Flag Day evening encounter with Dundee at Paradise…
Celtic player Camilo Duran poses for pictures at Celtic Park, Glasgow on Thursday 23rd July 2026. Photo Andy Buchanan/Shutterstock
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That game will be packed but today’s friendly against a lightweight AC Milan side that will be missing multiple top performers, will not be well attended due to the Celtic support once again being frustrated and angry with the club for creating another summer of discontent through their inactivity in transfer market, so far only getting one deal over the line with the £5m signing of Camilo Duran from Qarabag.
That transfer fee has been more than covered by the sale of Luis Palma to Lech Poznan for £3.5m and Maik Nawrocki to RC Lens for £2m. And with Celtic CEO Michael Nicholson in discussions to sign four new players, it looks like the delay could be caused by an instruction to wait for sales of key players like Daizen Maeda and Arne Engels before proceeding with the purchases Martin O’Neill needs this week.
Maeda should compete his move to Ipswich Town today and that could result in Kasper Hogh from Bodo Glimt coming to Celtic early next week, fingers crossed anyway.
Meanwhile Celtic are haggling over a few hundred grand which is frustrating the move for German midfielder Mika Baur with SC Paderborn resisting the latest Celtic lowballing attempt for their player who has already agreed personal terms with the Scottish Champions and wants the move to happen.
A left back to cover for Kieran Tierney and a first pick goalkeeper are also priorities for Martin O’Neill in a summer window that interim Chairman Brian Wilson said would be busy for the club but has actually been anything but.
Celtic Team News
Martin O’Neill didn’t do a media conference ahead of last week’s friendly against Middlesbrough which ended in a 1-1 draw with new signing Camilo Duran scoring his first goal at Celtic Park in an almost deserted stadium.
The Celtic manager didn’t speak to the mainstream media ahead of today’s match, causing a silly rumour that he had resigned due to the club’s failings in the transfer market. The rumour emerged on a low-grade Facebook page which has zero credibility yet it gathered momentum throughout the day. Why share this guff?
There was a Lennoxtown training video released by the club so you can have a look a that to see who might be available today…
As far as a predicted Celtic team goes, it could look something like this:
Predicted Celtic XI (4-3-3): Sinisalo; Donovan, Carter-vickers, Scales, Tierney; McGregor, Engels, Bernardo; Yang, Duran and Tounekti
Subs:Doohan, Johnston, Trusty, Murray, Oxlade-Chamberlain, McCowan, Nygren, Hatate, Forrest, Balikwisha and Osmand.
Entirely guesswork as there has been zero communication from the club on this game via the mainstream media while the Celtic fan media disgracefully remains banned, probably permanently.
AC Milan Team News
AC Milan will clearly not be at their strongest for today’s match at Celtic Park, many of their top players still not back with the squad following the World Cup. Santiago Giménez, Christian Pulisic, Gonçalo Ramos, Rafael Leão, Koni De Winter, Ardon Jashari, Alexis Saelemaekers, Mike Maignan and Adrien Rabiot will not be involved this afternoon as their post-World Cup holidays continue.
Additionally Milan have a few problems that will further weaken the squad that has travelled to Glasgow. Christopher Nkunku, Pervis Estupinan and Pietro Terracciano did not travel to Glasgow. Nkunku has a muscle strain so remains in Milan for treatment while Estupinan could be heading for the exit door with a move to Aston Villa seeming likely.
So new head coach Ruben Amorim will have to dig deep into his squad for the visit to Celtic Park with his players likely to be disappointed at the expected small crowd due to ongoing unhappiness with the Celtic Board from large sections of the Celtic support.
Our friends at Sempemilan.com have predicted the following starting line-up this afternoon for the match against Celtic, with many young players from the B Team getting the chance to impress the new Head Coach ahead of the return on many first team starters following their delayed summer vacations caused by the World Cup.
Predicted Milan XI (3-4-2-1): Torriani; Gila, Gabbia, Pavlovic; Chukwueze, Comotto, Musah, Bartesaghi; Ossola, Guernier; Kostic.
Unavailable: Nkunku, Estupinan, P. Terracciani, Gimenez, Pulisic, Ramos, Leao, De Winter, Saelemaekers, Jashari, Maignan, Rabiot, Modric.
Kick-off Time
Celtic v AC Milan takes place at Celtic Park this afternoon with the friendly match kicking off at 3pm, Celtic Park Time.
Where to Watch
CelticPlayer will be showing the game live for all subscribers and it’s now available on a PayPer View basis with the club’s new Match Pass. Non-subscribers (excluding those in Italy) can purchase a one-off Match Pass for just £8.99.
The club also confirmed that Single Match Passes will be released periodically for individual fixtures at Celtic Park throughout the season, subject to SPFL broadcast rules.
Whether stay-away protesters will spend £8.99 in the midst of the Not Another Penny campaign is doubtful to say the least.
Predicted Score
Celtic a a few weeks ahead of Milan who will have multiple B team players involved today. Expect a home win (2-1) for the Hoops as the build-up to the real business concludes. This is going to be a huge week for Celtic with Daizen Maeda leaving and perhaps multiple arrivals coming in to improve spirits ahead of Flag Day.
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