Albion vs Celtic Predictions, Betting Tips and Match Previews

Celtic are yet to lose a domestic match this season and it would take one of the biggest Scottish Cup shocks of all time for that to change here. Albion are in the bottom half of League One and don’t really possess the sort of quality required to cause the Scottish Champions many problems.

Perhaps the only glimmer of hope for the hosts is that Celtic haven’t played in 22 days since their Old Firm Derby win at Ibrox on New Year’s Eve. There may be a bit of rust to shake off but once they get into their stride, the Hoops should be able to pick off where they left off. They’ve won their last 7 games in all competitions and their last 18 matches against Scottish opposition. Not since their 2-2 draw against Inverness back in September have they failed to win a domestic match.

Given that, it’s very hard to see a path to anything but defeat for Albion Rovers, who are likely to find even scoring a difficult challenge. Celtic have kept clean sheets in 13 of those 18 wins so their defence has certainly been doing its job. They’ve conceded just 0.70 goals per game in the Premiership this term and have won 50% of their matches to nil.

Albion Rovers are 7th in the 3rd tier and while they may be able to raise their game for this one-off tie, it’ll take a massive improvement for them to avoid a fairly convincing defeat. Their home record in League One this season is poor, with 56% of their home games ending in defeat. They’ve failed to score in 44% of those games and failure to break sides down at that level indicates they will find it virtually impossible to do likewise against a side of Celtic’s quality.

The Glaswegians may rotate their side slightly but will most likely take this opportunity to get most of their regulars some action following the 3 week winter break. They’ll have several major goal threats as a result. Their forwards are very short at 3/10 in the ‘to score anytime’ market which doesn’t offer great value with some doubts over whether they’ll complete 90 minutes. Better value looks to be found by backing Scott Sinclair to score anytime at 4/6 with the winger having fired in 12 goals in all competitions already this season.

Overall this should be another routine win for the runaway Premiership leaders and backing Celtic to win to nil at 4/6 looks like a solid bet.