Manchester City vs Glasgow Celtic Prediction & Betting Tips - Club Friendly

Prediction published on 21/07/2024, 21:30  by Ian John | Modified on 22/07/2024 at 07:49 in Football Predictions

Manchester City face Celtic in their opening friendly game of the season at the Kenan Memorial Stadium in North Carolina. The Citizens and The Hoops will both be without a significant number of players as they recuperate from featuring in Euro 2024 and the Copa America 2024. That means formulating a prediction for this match could well be tricky as both sides will likely feature several younger, less experienced players for this friendly.

Pep Guardiola has hinted that this may be his final season in charge at Manchester City and he will want to finish in style. He will be chasing a fifth consecutive league title, an achievement unmatched in English football. Their last competitive game was their 2-1 FA Cup Final defeat to Manchester United, and he will have a threadbare squad to pick from for this fixture, with Erling Haaland, Jack Grealish, Kalvin Phillips and Ederson likely to be the only regular first-team players likely involved. 

However, new signing Savio is not expected to join the squad until after the game on Tuesday evening U.S. time. 

In contrast to City, Celtic have already played three friendlies, and Brendan Rodgers's team is unbeaten in those matches. A poor 1-1 draw with Ayr United kicked them off, but they then played a cracking game with Queens Park, winning 6-4. Then, they headed to the United States and beat DC United 4-0 in their most impressive pre-season performance so far.

The new signing Kasper Schmeichel won't be involved for Celtic, and neither will Cameron Carter-Vickers or Alistair Johnson. Matt O'Riley should start and Daizen Maeda could be recalled back to the squad for this game too.

Celtic will be fitter and have more of their usual first-team squad available for this fixture, which promises to be an open and entertaining affair in North Carolina.