CELTIC may be without winger Liel Abada for their Champions League group stage tie against RB Leipzig due to the timing of Yom Kippur.
Both Abada and Nir Bitton missed last season’s Europa League match against Real Betis in Seville because they were observing the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, which starts this evening and ends at sunset on Wednesday night.
It is understood that Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou will leave it up to his player to decide whether or not he wishes to travel with the team from Glasgow to Germany later today.
Meanwhile, Postecoglou has challenged his Celtic players to take the next step and turn plaudits for performances at Champions League level into three points when they face Marco Rose’s side on Wednesday night.
The Celtic manager has been satisfied by how his team have handled the step up in level so far, though is obviously disappointed to have only taken a single point from their opening two groups stage matches against Real Madrid and Shakhtar Donetsk despite performing well in both games.
Now that they have dealt with the excitement of being back in the competition and gained valuable experience from those two ties though, Postecoglou is hoping Celtic can return from Germany with a crucial first win in Group F as they look to make the knockout stage.
“It’s been good,” Postecoglou told Celtic TV. “I would have enjoyed it more if we’d won, obviously, because you want to win games of football.
“But it’s just great to be performing at that level again and it’s where the club needs to be, wants to be, and now the challenge for us is to grow every time we’re out there.
“I guess for the players, that initial excitement in the first game, the buzz of being in the Champions League, particularly here at home playing against Real Madrid was fantastic, but now we’ve done that it’s about ‘let’s make an impact at that level’.
“It doesn’t mean the challenge is getting any easier because Leipzig away is a pretty tough challenge.
“But, as I said now, it’s about really wanting us to be present at that stage, to be competitive at that stage and growing every time we’re out there.”
Postecoglou though does expect a stiff test from Leipzig, with the tumult caused by the departure of manager Domenico Tedesco seeming to settle somewhat under new boss Rose.
“They had a little bit of a disrupted start to the season,” he said.
“They finished last season fairly well, but the change of manager seems to have sparked them a little bit.
“All the traditional trademarks of their football are there. They’ve got a lot of speed, very dynamic and in terms of transition football they’re quick.
“When you’re playing away in the Champions League, there’s always a massive challenge to overcome those hurdles.
“But I think it will be a good game for us to again measure our football, measure ourselves and we’ll be ready for it.”
