CELTIC fans will warm to Ronny Deila if he can melt the Icemen on Tuesday night.
The new boss hopes to mark his competitive debut with a Champions League victory away to KR Reykjavik but don't expect fireworks.
Celtic prepared by winning two and drawing two friendlies in Austria but won't be anything near full speed. Deila's made the point the club's most important games are right at the start of the season and that's definitely a problem but players have plenty of Champions League experience and that should be a help.
Reykjavic are 11 games into their season but have lost four of them, scoring just 15 goals, so shouldn't cause the Hoops too many problems.
Bookies accept that so Deila's men are 1-18 at Paddy Power to qualify and 2-5 with McBookie and William Hill to win tonight.
With the second leg at Murrayfield next week instead of Celtic Park the Hoops will be keen to start with at least a goal advantage and are 21-20 at Stan James minus one.
Deila has plenty of strike options at his disposal and has decided to go with Leigh Griffiths and Anthony Stokes at the expense of Teemu Pukki.
Kris Commons was Celtic's star man last season and is 7-2 favourite at Coral to get punters off to a flier with the opener and I'm going with him.
At bigger prices there is deadball expert Charlie Mulgrew at 14-1 with Ladbrokes while Dutch defender Virgil van Dijk, who loves to push forward, is 28-1 at boylesports but just 10-1 with bet365.
KR's biggest threat is likely to come from English forward Gary Martin who has netted 13 goals in 22 appearances since signing from Akranes. Martin has banged in four in five games and is 10-1 at bet365 and others to break the deadlock. Van Dijk is 7-1 at boylesports to net at any time.
Recommended Bets
Celtic -1 (8pm)
(21-20, Stan James)
Commons to score first
(7-2, Coral)
Celtic to win to nil
(13-10, 888sport)
Mr.F et al:
Take a look on betfair, the Celtic match has had £10,000 matched but in the Valletta v. Karabakh match has ten times that amount, with £85,000 on the W-D-W market. The Celtic match is the highest profile team tomorrow night so understandably would have thought this would have the most money and the other matches are much less amounts again, I think there is only about £300 so far in the FC Sheriff match. Definitely something going on here?
PodTheRod, not necessarily. The Celtic match is only the highest profile in the UK – there are plenty of big teams playing and Celtic won’t get a look-in in countries such as Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia etc.
Think pukki deserves a better run this season as i think he has the potential to be a good player for celtic and his goals per game ratio is pretty decent.
Has to be commons anytime and think the celtic defence will concede so 2-1 celtic win.
28/1 is a great price for Van Dijk. Think he was fgs about 3 times last year. Therefore, worth taking very time you can get 20/1 or over. Will wait for the line ups before taking anything else
Will be interesting to see who starts upfront.
I dont know if Stokesy, Griff and Teemu can all play so one of them are going to be onthe bench. I will go with Mr F -1 and look for a fgs when i see the line up.
Charlie Mulgrew anytime looks a good bet to me, takes free kicks, and might play midfield tongiht if emilio is flung back in after world cup.
celtic -1 was 23/20 at hills but now 4/5 !
Celtic have a strong side out tonight then will play a weakened side for the dynamo dresden friendly game which is sandwiched between tonights game in iceland and the 2nd leg next tuesday.
Anyone any idea if this match is been shown on regular TV
Bbc 1 8pm
: .@celticfc team to play Reykjavik – Forster; Lustig, Ambrose, van Dijk, Izaguirre; Mulgrew, Johansen; Griffiths, Commons, McGregor; Stokes
Hiesinberg, that’s about the strongest available and interesting to see he’s gone with Griffiths and Stokes ahead of Pukki. I will therefore take Commons to score first and maybe do a small stake on Mulgrew, who is skipper for the night, each-way.
BBC Scotland Paddy, 951 on English Sky
McGregor fg
I’m on Celtic -1 and -2. One of those games that depends on how early Celtic score. The longer it stays 0-0 the more determined the home team are going to get.
craigboy, Celtic have put out a strong team as expected and it looks an attacking one. As you say an early goal could make the difference but they should win with something to spare. However, look at the lack of goals so far – that suggests a bit of ring rustiness.
For the good of -1 and -2 they need to score in the next 15mins. Lacking that cutting edge and struggling to break the Icelandic side down at the minute. If they get one early enough they’ll get a second I think.
There we go. Got him at 7-1. Happy with that.
Also had him any time. As soon as i seen he was playing i fancied him. Took a while though.
SMR, should have been Commons who had 5 or 6 shots before anyone and hammered one off the bar. Griffiths and Pukki also hit woodwork but well done to the youngster on his debut.
Yeah. Had a couple of quid on Commons too. Happy for McGregor.