ANALYSIS
1 Life after Dembele?
IF Moussa Dembele is to leave Celtic before the transfer window closes on Friday night, then the more regular football available to Leigh Griffiths may see the Scotland striker recapture his best form.
He was unfortunate last season in that his own injuries largely coincided with the points of the season when Dembele was also in the sick bay, but if he can get back to playing regularly, then he could well regain the sharpness that saw him score 50 goals in a season three years ago.
He did bring up his century of goals on the night with a typically eye-catching freekick, and he could have had more as he squandered a couple of presentable chances. The encouraging thing for Celtic and Griffiths though is that he continues to get into goalscoring positions, and the more he plays, the more of those will be dispatched into the net.
With Odsonne Edouard sitting out the match last night again, it is likely that Griffiths will lead the line against Rangers on Sunday, meaning he is edging back towards his best form at just the right time for Celtic. And Alex McLeish will be pleased to see that too.
2 Johnston is a huge prospect The young Celtic winger was given a start on the right in both legs of the tie, and he impressed in both outings. It is easy to see why he is so highly rated by Brendan Rodgers as he showed his pace and trickery to torment his immediate opponent for large periods of the night.
Clearly needs to bulk up physically and improve his decision-making, but the youngster is a real throwback to the wingers who used to thrill Celtic Park and get bums off of seats.
Will likely make way from the starting line-up for the visit of Rangers on Sunday for the vastly more experienced James Forrest, but every time he is given a run-out he does his chances no harm with his inventive and direct style of play.
3 Attack’s the best form of defence
The Celtic backline looks more settled now with the reintroduction of Dedryck Boyata alongside Kristoffer Ajer, but they have hardly been tested at all in the last two matches against Hamilton and Suduva, with their opponents showing little ambition to get forward.
Even still, both of those limited opponents managed to carve out the odd chance that a higher calibre of side would make more of, and there must be question marks over a defence that has continually been chopped and changed this summer for varying reasons.
The Celtic support would dearly love there to be a big-name defender brought in before Sunday’s match, mind you, so that back four may be disrupted again.
Either way, Celtic look much more comfortable when they are dictating the play high up the pitch, and they would be well served against Rangers to come out on the front foot and keep the ball as close to the opposition box as they possibly can to avoid any