After demolishing Slovan Bratislava 5-1 in their opening 2024/25 Champions League fixture of the new format, Celtic will face last year’s finalist Borussia Dortmund in a much tougher Matchday 2 battle.
Of course, Dortmund aren’t exactly invincible despite their pedigree, as they were destroyed 5-1 by Stuttgart themselves a couple of weeks ago and recently had some difficulties defensively in a 4-2 win over “Little Ruhrderby” rivals Bochum.
Celtic will have one key disadvantage going into Tuesday night’s game at the Signal Iduna Park, however, as one of their most important players won’t be able to play.
Manager Brendan Rodgers ruled out starting center back Cameron Carter-Vickers with a toe injury, as the 26-year-old was unable to play this past weekend in what ended up being an easy 6-0 win over St. Johnstone.
Carter-Vickers suffered the injury against Bratislava and hasn’t played since, though there was initially optimism that the talented American would be able to suit up.
Celtic could still beat Dortmund without him, but it will be tougher to quiet BVB superstar Serhou Guirassy without Carter-Vickers. Guirassy has been a menace already for Dortmund, lifting the team to victory this past Friday against Bochum.
The previous season, Guirassy was second to only Bayern Munich superstar Harry Kane in total goals scored in the Bundesliga, so, needless to say, it will take a team effort to stop him without Cameron Carter-Vickers available.
Note that the Celtic center back is the team leader with 2.6 interceptions per game and has also completed over 93 percent of his passes as one of the most underrated central defenders on the continent.
The managing editor of The Trivela Effect, Kevin has 15 years of experience in digital media. He covered Real Madrid from 2019-2022 for The Real Champs as a site manager. You can contact him at the site’s official Twitter handle @TrivelaEffect or via the site’s official email thetrivelaeffect@gmail.com.