The Harder They Come...: A Bayern Munich-Celtic Preview

BAYERN MUNICH V CELTIC: CHAMPIONS LEAGUE GROUP B MATCHDAY 3; WEDNESDAY 18TH OCTOBER 7:45PM

Celtic aim to build on last month’s superb win over Anderlecht with a daunting trip to Munich to face German Champions Bayern.

Team Selection: The big news is that Jozo Simunovic will not be involved in the game as he has failed to shake off his hamstring injury and has not even travelled to Munich.

This gives Celtic a problem as once again in this Champions League campaign we will be forced to play a makeshift defence, which will probably involve Mikael Lustig moving over to centre-half and Cristian Gamboa - who it has to be said, played well against Dundee at the weekend - at right back. Or perhaps Nir Bitton will play at the back again...I hope not.

Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images

In midfield, the manager has another selection dilemma, will he play Olivier Ntcham or bring Stuart Armstrong back in? Will Patrick Roberts - not noted for his defending - play or will it be James Forrest? I think we will go with a five man midfield of Forrest, Ntcham, Brown, McGregor and Sinclair. Midfield will be vital so we won’t play our more attack-minded players such as Armstrong or Rogic.

Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images

Up front Leigh Griffiths deserves to start although Moussa Dembele will undoubtedly be involved in the game at some stage.

Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images

Previous Meetings: Celtic and Bayern had two epic battles in the Champions League back in 2003, we wrote about those games here.

Prediction: Even though Bayern have had an indifferent start to the Bundesliga season and will be without key men Manuel Neuer, Franck Ribery and Javi Martinez for the game it will still be a hugely difficult game for Celtic, even more so now that Jozo has been ruled out. My hope is that we put up a far better fight than we did against PSG earlier in the competition, and ultimately I can see Bayern winning by a few goals.

Bayern Munich 3 Celtic 1