{"id":353700,"date":"2025-08-18T08:05:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T08:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/353700\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T08:05:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T08:05:14","slug":"celtic-have-the-champions-league-headache-you-want-while-jury-diagnoses-rangers-with-something-more-troublesome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/353700\/","title":{"rendered":"Celtic have the Champions League headache you want while Jury diagnoses Rangers with something more troublesome"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Record Sport writers look ahead to the playoff action and deliberate on Kieron Bowie and Lennon Miller’s Scotland chances<\/p>\n

06:00, 18 Aug 2025Updated 08:15, 18 Aug 2025<\/p>\n

Celtic kick-off their Champions League quest on Wednesday at home to FC Kairat – what are Brendan Rodgers\u2019 big selection calls?<\/p>\n

ANDY NEWPORT:<\/strong> Arne Engels<\/a> was certainly a lot better against Falkirk but his brilliant Bairns display might have come too late to budge Benjamin Nygren from the team, who seems to be flavour of the month with the manager.<\/p>\n

GRAEME YOUNG:<\/strong> Rejuvenated Arne Engels may well have played himself back into the first choice starting XI with his all-action display against Falkirk. It will allow Benjamin Nygren to play on the right wing and keep James Forrest as an option from the bench.<\/p>\n

\"ArneArne Engels celebrates with Dane Murray(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

ROSS PILCHER:<\/strong> Arne Engels has given him food for thought. The Belgian looked like he was back to doing what he does best against Falkirk after a few months of not a lot. Fitting him and Nygren into the same XI could be the way to go.<\/p>\n

And what decisions does Russell Martin have to make as he picks his line-up for Tuesday\u2019s play-off crunch with Club Brugge.<\/p>\n

ANDY:<\/strong> It looks like Jayden Meghoma could be handed a baptism of fire if his move from Brentford can be completed in tim<\/a>e. With Jefte on the way out, Martin needs a left back in quick. Otherwise it will be Max Aarons back in a slot where he\u2019s looked so uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

GRAEME: <\/strong>Nico Raskin has to start and Cyriel Dessers is another who must be in from the off a week after suffering an injury which appeared season-ending. But this goes beyond personnel as Martin<\/a> and his gung-ho side must avoid a knockout blow in the first leg.<\/p>\n

\"JaydenJayden Meghoma of England (Image: UEFA via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

ROSS:<\/strong> Who will play left back for a start. Jefte seems to be out the door and Max Aarons apparently isn\u2019t a long term solution on either side of the defence, which didn\u2019t look too clever against Alloa.<\/p>\n

Kieron Bowie blasted a wonder goal for Hibs in their Conference League win over Partizan – has he fired his way into the Scotland starting line up for next month\u2019s World Cup qualifiers?<\/p>\n

ANDY: <\/strong>He\u2019s in form and looking confident so it\u2019s a no brainer from me. It was great to see him having the belief to take that strike on but there\u2019s so much more to his game that could be useful to Steve Clarke<\/a>.<\/p>\n

GRAEME: <\/strong>Yes, we have found our talisman for years to come. The audacity of his Puskas Award contender has the world talking but it\u2019s the unglamourous parts of his game which sets him apart. A star in the making.<\/p>\n

Hibernian’s Kieron Bowie celebrates scoring<\/p>\n

ROSS: <\/strong>Lyndon Dykes bagging a late winner for Birmingham was a timely reminder to Steve Clarke that he can score goals. But if Bowie keeps it up and stays fit over the next few weeks, he probably deserves a start.<\/p>\n

Lennon Miller has completed his \u00a35million move to Udinese – should he also be fast-tracked into the national team?<\/p>\n

ANDY:<\/strong> I\u2019d love to see him get a proper chance to show his abilities against Denmark and Belarus but he\u2019s up against Scott McTominay and Billy Gilmour for a place in the team and as Lewis Ferguson knows, shifting that pair ain\u2019t easy.<\/p>\n

GRAEME:<\/strong> It feels likely. No transfer is a sure thing but Serie A appears made for Miller\u2019s skillset and the maturity which belies his tender years means you cannot rule out a key role at international level.<\/p>\n

\"LennonLennon Miller moved to Udinese for a club record fee, believed to be around \u00a35m(Image: SNS Group)<\/p>\n

ROSS: <\/strong>We\u2019re still pretty strong in midfield and Lewis Ferguson had to wait longer than was really fair despite tearing up trees in Serie A, so don\u2019t expect to see Miller lining up for Flower of Scotland just yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Record Sport writers look ahead to the playoff action and deliberate on Kieron Bowie and Lennon Miller’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353701,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4100],"tags":[2352,2628,1614,94,21843,26957,1946,28104,13315,1638,79,70571,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-353700","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-brendan-rodgers","9":"tag-celtic-fc","10":"tag-champions-league","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-hibernian-fc","13":"tag-james-forrest","14":"tag-rangers-fc","15":"tag-russell-martin","16":"tag-scotland-football-team","17":"tag-scottish-premiership","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-steve-clarke","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115048738086275781","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}