Celtic's Inverness fling before their Italian job
With the Juventus game just a stone's throw away, Neil Lennon rightfully rested his top guns ahead of their Champions League last 16 encounter with the Italian giants.
While a lowly Third Division side -- bittered by the foul taste left in their mouth after falling onto their own sword and blaming others for their own issues -- offered training facilities to Juventus in Qatar after Celtic had the cheek not to give them a wee wave, Celtic got on with the business at hand of defending their Scottish Premier League crown.
Gary Hooper, Joe Ledley, Scott Brown, Charlie Mulgrew and other key first team players were left out of the starting eleven as Lennon decided that the Inverness game wasn't really that important in the grand scheme of things this week. That signalled the debuts of recent signing Aussie midfielder Tom Rogic and Israeli defender Rami Gershon, while youngster Marcus Fraser made his competitive debut. Once again Celtic's scouting system looks to be worth every penny spent.
Inverness have always been a bogey side for Celtic, ever since that humiliating defeat to the Highlanders under John Barnes in 2000. That game signalled the end of Barnes' new order and Lennon used this tough test to call out his fringe players and prove themselves. They did just that, despite falling a goal behind within the first ten minutes, they fought back and comfortably saw the game out securing a 3-1 victory and stretch their lead at the top to 18 points.
- Match report: Inverness 1-3 Celtic
While I have been highly critical of several fringe players this season, they stepped up to the plate today -- despite a somewhat slow first half.
The fact that Celtic could make nine changes to their side and have a team with eight players under the age of 25 in it proves the gulf in class between Celtic and the rest of the SPL.
Tuesday night will see Celtic's regular starters return to the side as Juventus come calling. The city will fill with Celtic and Juve fans who will later that night take in that Champions League anthem which will blare out around Celtic Park, making the hair on the back of your neck stand up before the atmosphere inside the stadium rocks even the most experienced Juve player.
Saturday saw Celtic do a highland fling. Let's hope on Tuesday they can do an Italian job.
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