Pre-season friendly

Celtic Park, Glasgow.

July 16, 2022

CELTIC… 2

(Jota 16, Turnbull 27)

BLACKBURN ROVERS… 2

(Gallagher 1, Brereton Diaz 76)

Celtic returned to Glasgow for their first pre-season match on home soil, playing out an entertaining 2-2 draw against English Championship side Blackburn Rovers.

Fans had to wait more than two months to see their side back in action at Celtic Park, with the last game at Paradise coming on trophy day against Motherwell on May 14.

After a positive pre-season camp, where the Bhoys fired in 14 goals across three games in Austria and the Czech Republic, there was a sense of excitement about watching Ange Postecoglou’s team back at home once again.

However, after just 20 seconds, the Celts got off to the worst possible start as the visitors took the lead.

Straight from kick-off, Callum McGregor lost possession in the middle of the park and Blackburn Rovers pounced. Jake Vale raced forward and played a reverse through ball into the path of Sam Gallagher and the former Southampton striker made no mistake, curling past Joe Hart into the bottom right corner.

Any goal that early comes as a shock, but as the Hoops had shown in their previous two pre-season matches, there’s no panic when they do concede.

Almost immediately, the Celts took control of proceedings, dominating possession and creating opportunities, the first significant one falling to David Turnbull on 12 minutes who curled wide from inside the area after nice link-up play with Jota.

The Portuguese winger was making his first outing at Celtic Park as a permanent signing after penning a five-year contract from Benfica and on 16 minutes he levelled the scoring.

A corner from the right found the head of Kyogo but his effort was deflected to the edge of the box where Jota was lurking and he smashed the bouncing ball into the bottom right corner.

The chances kept coming and Kyogo almost put the Hoops into the lead on 21 minutes with a half-volley inside the area, but on 27 minutes the Bhoys edged in front.

Matt O’Riley was brought down on the edge of the area, setting up a shooting opportunity for David Turnbull from the free kick. The Scotland international made Blackburn pay, smashing his attempt under the wall and straight into the middle of the net with Thomas Kaminski diving to one side.

The chances kept coming, with Kyogo again going close just before the half-time break, but at the interval, it was the Celts who entered with the advantage.

When the teams emerged for the second period, Ange Postecoglou used the opportunity to make a number of changes, with Daizen Maeda, James Forrest, Anthony Ralston, Alexandro Bernabei and Benjamin Siegrist on for Joe Hart, Josip Juranovic, Greg Taylor, Liel Abada and Kyogo.

Siegrist and Bernabei were both making their first appearance as Celtic players in Paradise and the Swiss keeper was tested just four minutes into his home debut as he had to get down well to stop a curling drive from Ben Brereton Diaz from nestling into the bottom right corner.

Not wanting to let the visitors back into the game, the Celts immediately went on the hunt for another goal, with Jota and Bernabei denied by good saves from Kaminski on 51 and 52 minutes.

Siegrist was called into action again on 56 minutes, this time stopping a low strike from Gallagher, before keeping out the striker again a minute later with a brilliant stop with his legs.

Celtic began to settle again into their passing rhythm and took control of the game, with McGregor almost making it 3-1 on 69 minutes, but his shot from the edge of the box was pushed away from the bottom right corner by the Rovers’ keeper.

Then on 75 minutes, against the run of play, Blackburn would hit back as Brereton Diaz scored from a free kick, nestling his effort into the bottom right corner and past Siegrist from just over 20 yards.

That brought an end to an entertaining 90 minutes at Celtic Park and another good warm-up with the league campaign kicking off in two weeks.

CELTIC: Hart (Siegrist 45), Juranovic (Ralston 45 (Urhoghide 87)), Carter-Vickers (Jullien 73), Welsh (Lawal 73), Taylor (Bernabei 45), McGregor (McCarthy 73), O’Riley (Vata 73), Turnbull (Ideguchi 59), Abada (Forrest 45), Jota (Johnston 59), Kyogo (Maeda 45).

Subs: Bain, Oluwayemi, Kenny.

BLACKBURN ROVERS: Kaminski, Carter, Ayala (A. Wharton 76), S. Wharton, Pickering, Travis, Buckley (Markanday 76), Gallagher (Hedges 66), Dolan (Garrett 83), Brereton Diaz (Rankin-Costello 76), Vale.

Subs: Pears, Hilton, Magloire, Barnes, Phillips, Edun, Harlock, Leonard, Butterworth.

Celtic held by Blackburn Rovers in first pre-season game at Celtic Park