KOLO TOURE SIGNS BUT TOO LATE FOR KAZAKHSTAN
Kolo won’t travel to Kazakhstan but Rodgers may play another wildcard
Kolo Toure won’t be thrown into a Champions League baptism of fire with Celtic on Wednesday.
But Hoops boss Brendan Rodgers hasn’t ruled out making another signing who could be fielded as a wildcard against Astana in Kazakhstan. Veteran stopper Toure is set to complete his move to Parkhead today and the 35- year- old insists he is ready for action.
Rodgers, though, wants him to stay at home and work on his f itness as Celts head off on their gruelling trip to the
It was a tightrope slung between prest ige and preparation, pound signs and preservation.
But Celtic made it across in one piece for the flight to Kazakhstan, their bodies intact and their confidence buoyed.
Billed as the Clash of the Champions, the Hoops eventually fell to the Foxes in a penalty shoot-out.
A moment of magic from Riyad Mahrez was worth the admission money alone as Leicester took the lead.
But Eoghan O’Connell’s first goal for Celtic ran it close – and his side held their heads high as they refused to be outclassed by the multi-million pound gifts of England’s top dogs.
It wasn’t quite facing Man United in the white heat of the Champions League back in 2008, and there may have been 16 subs used, but it wasn’t the worst Battle of Britain friendly.
And the only purpose it was ever going to serve the Hoops was to ready them for the challenge they face against Astana on Wednesday. Which it did. With one eye on midweek, Brendan Rodgers was taking few chances with his starting line-up, Kieran Tierney, Erik Sviatchenko and Nir Bitton all watching from cotton-wool seats on the sidelines.
Interestingly, though, he didn’t change the system from the one he deployed against Lincoln Red Imps in midweek.
It was effectively a three at the back with O’Connell and Saidy Janko flanking Mikael Lustig, Emilio Izaguirre pushing high on the left and Scott Brown providing the insurance policy in front.
For both sides, it was their f irst outing in the prestigious, if disparate, International Champions Cup.
The Hoops’ other two games are Barcelona in Dublin next weekend and Inter Milan in Limerick on August 13 while the English champs have the glamour of LA against PSG and Stockholm against Barca.
England striker Jamie Vardy and Wales midfielder Andy King were both absent, given extra rest after Euro 2016 with both heading straight for America.
That didn’t exactly leave Claudio Ranieri’s side short on talent, however, with the class of Mahrez there and a first sighting of their £13m replacement for midfielder enforcer N’Golo Kante, Nampalys Mendy from Nice.
But with only a single 90 minutes against Oxford United behind the English champions, and Celtic desperate to keep those they did have on the park free from any problems, it was a slow burner.
The Foxes carried the confident air of a side who knew exactly what they were doing and how to do it though.
You don’t do what they did last season without being comfortable in your own skin and they looked so settled in their uncomplicated but effective 4- 4-2.
And they had the first chance of the afternoon, Mahrez and Richie De Laet combining to set up Leonardo Ulloa with the Argentine denied the opener by good pressure from Janko.
Mahrez and Demarai Gray both came close as well.
But Celtic eventually took a foothold in the game, Leigh Griffiths troubling Wes Morgan but not keeper Ron-Robert Zieler with a run and shot before Moussa Dembele was inches away from his first goal for the club.
The summer signing from Fulham did well to juggle the ball in the box and fired in an acrobatic effort only for Zieler to
deny him with a good save. We also saw the best and worst – but mainly the worst – of Izaguirre on the left flank.
At one point the Honduran left Mahrez for dead on the edge of the box, only to smash a ludicrous ball across the face of goal and out for a throw-in when Patrick Roberts was begging for a decent delivery at the back post.
Worse, however, were the two other crosses Izaguirre slung five yards over the bar, to absolutely no one’s surprise.
Still, the one man you could rely on to hit the target was Griffiths and only Zieler denied him the opener, tipping wide a blazing 20-yard free-kick from the striker.
You could sense the trepidation in the Cel t ic suppor t ’ s half-hearted cheers when the stadium announcer welcomed Efe Ambrose on for Lustig at half-time.
But despite Leicester taking the lead within a minute, he wasn’t to blame.
No one was. It was just a piece of absolute class from that man Mahrez.
Sure, maybe Izaguirre knew
where the Algerian was taking him when he squared him up on the right flank. But seeing it coming and stopping it are two different things – and the curled finish round Craig Gordon was a piece of perfection. Still ,20- year-old O’Connell decided to weigh in with a special piece of work of his own. Previously dogged by the infamy of an OG at Inverness which cost a makeshift Celtic defeat two years ago, he made amends here with a quality finish, letting Stuart Armstrong know he was coming before curling a peach past
Kasper Schmeichel. The Foxes No.1 had replaced Zieler but he was left helpless by the Irishman’s fine finish.
The leveller was the classic friendly signal for the subs to start rolling – and by the time the next 15 minutes was up, only six of the original 22 were left.
When it gets to that stage there’s little point in sticking around for the bucket time – but it was a touch of class to see the whole stadium applaud Mahrez off the park, his ability appreciated irrespective of allegiances.
And even a couple of unlikely Beckenbauer- esque moments from Ambrose raised the cheers.
The Americanisation of the announcements was also an eye-opener during the game, the ICC’s sponsors getting their money’s worth in play on the big screens.
The shoot-out at the death seemed to come as a surprise to many as well, not least those who had already left.
But the outcome – James Forrest missing the 11th after 10 perfect pens and Daniel Amartey converting the 12th – was pretty inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.
The real deal will come over the next two midweeks.