Celtic vs Hibernian Odds: Back the Bhoys to win in Scottish football's first game back

The Scottish Premiership season resumes after an early winter’s break, with the opening match seeing a repeat of the recent League Cup Final, with Celtic hosting Hibernian. The current state of play in the league sees Ange Postecoglou’s side six points behind their bitter rivals Rangers at the top of the table, with Hibs occupying fifth place, having dropped off after their blistering start to the season

Hibs will be looking for their first win at Celtic Park since manager Shaun Maloney was a player for their opponents, back in 2010. Hibernian’s Chris Mueller, Rocky Bushiri, Harry Clarke and Dylan Tait are all in contention to make their debuts against Celtic, whilst Ryan Porteous and Paul McGinn will miss out with suspensions. 

For the home side, Postecoglou will be sweating on the fitness of star men Jota and Kyogo Furuhashi, but new signings from the J-League, Yosuke Ideguchi, Reo Hatate and Daizen Maeda are available.

Known lover of all things green and white, @petemarsden_ will have a look at the game for us today, and provide us with two tips. Please gamble responsibly.

First up, we’ve got Celtic to win and Both Teams To Score. This selection has landed in both fixtures between these sides this season, with BTTS itself coming in in four of the last five games. Celtic will be looking to get control of the ball, and get at Hibs early, as they look to close the gap on Rangers in the table, whilst Hibs will be dangerous on the break, and from set pieces, similar to how they scored in the cup final. Celtic could be missing the previously mentioned Jota and Kyogo, but with the Celtic Park crowd behind them, they should have enough to get over the line on Monday night.

Given how well Celtic’s last signing from the J-League turned out, I’m going to go out on a limb here and trust Ange Postecoglou’s knowledge when it comes to the league. One of Celtic’s three January recruits from Japan comes in the shape of Daizen Maeda. Coming off of a sensational scoring season in the J-League, where he scored 23 goals, ending the season as the joint-top scorer, and earning a place in the league’s team of the season, Celtic fans will be hoping for a big impact over the next few months.

His 23 goals were scored from just 47 shots on target in 2021, and he averaged 0.7 goals per 90 minutes in the league. As we mentioned he ranked joint-first for goals, but he also ranked first in the league for sprints made, and looks to have a sensational turn of pace. That and the desire to wow his new faithful, could see him make an instant impact for the Bhoys.