Celtic vs Leicester Predictions & Betting Tips, Match Previews

Celtic managed to avoid the biggest upset in European club football history on Wednesday evening when they came back from a first leg defeat to knock part-timers Lincoln Red Imps out of the Champions League. Lustig, Griffiths and Roberts netted in the space of six first half minutes to nullify the 1-0 defeat that the Scottish champions suffered in Gibraltar but that first leg loss will still be a source of embarrassment.

This came after Celtic managed to beat Wolfsburg in a friendly match last weekend, a result which makes it four wins, two draws, and one defeat in their seven pre-season matches so far.

However, this friendly tournament will provide a much sterner test for them. First they have to face Premier League champions Leicester ahead of a midweek Champions League tie and next weekend they play Barcelona before finishing off their International Champions Cup campaign with a match against Inter Milan. All of these fixtures come close to competitive matches though, so there’s a good chance we could see a few second string players making an appearance.

Leicester, after they have played Celtic, will go head to head with Paris Saint Germain next weekend and then Barcelona the Wednesday afterwords, which will precede the beginning of the English domestic season. This means that Leicester will be able to field full strength teams throughout the friendly tournament and they could provide some valuable information about what they should expect with their upcoming Champions League campaign.

Everybody will want to see how Leicester do this season after their famous Premier League triumph last season. Will they wilt and falter amid the pressures of continental football, or could we see them build on last year’s result and make themselves a force to be reckoned with in the game?

I think Leicester have the upper hand in this game. They are unbeaten since Arsenal defeated them in February and they have won nine of their 13 matches since then. They also have some talented new signings expecting to make appearances in Ahmed Musa and Nampalys Mendy, the latter of which will take the departed N’Golo Kante’s place.

Add to this the fact that Celtic could field a weakened team amid their Champions League qualification exploits and my prediction is for a Leicester 0-0 Asian Handicap at 1.850. I’m going for a 2-1 correct score prediction at 17/2 as well.