Celtic vs Rosenborg Predictions

Rosenborg have won the Eliteserien three times in the last three years and are on track for another triumph but have struggled to impress in Europe during that time, failing to get past the Europa League group stage in any of their last nine attempts. They will be eager to buck that trend this year, starting with the Scottish champions who have fared slightly better in Europe recently, but have also struggled to overly impress in seasons gone by.

Celtic have only won two of their last 22 European Group Stage/knockout round games in a series of campaigns where they have done very well in the qualifiers, but always struggled when they have come into the big time. They have made it to a group stage in each of the last eight years but have only progressed twice, not including last year where they made it to the round-of-32 by finishing third in their Champions League group. Celtic have always served up a lot of excitement with key games ringing out like their two draws with Manchester City, the 2-1 defeat to Bayern Munich and the 3-3 draw with Inter Milan but with Celtic failing to qualify for the top competition, they find themselves with clubs more similar to their level and they could really make something of this campaign with Red Bull Salzburg and Rosenborg not being the Barcelonas and PSGs of yesteryear.

Celtic have been in a slightly rough patch recently though, or at least what can be considered one for their standards. They did have some problems surrounding the long-term confidence of whether players were staying or leaving but with the transfer window well past them now, the team should be looking to band together and do something incredible. They are unbeaten in their last six and despite drawing 0-0 with newly-promoted St. Mirren at the weekend, they have scored nine and kept four clean sheets in that timeframe. Big game players like Callum McGregor and Olivier Ntcham will definitely be crucial in this one but have been in good form recently and will be right up for this, as should Dedryck Boyata and Odsonne Edouard. Their 3-0 win over Sūduva in their final Europa League qualifier a few weeks ago will be the standard and Celtic should be able to meet that with the Parkhead crowd behind them, one that is expected to be nearly 60,000 strong.

Rosenborg are also European regulars but, like Celtic, have failed to ever really make something of their campaigns, their last progression from a group stage was in the 1996/97 Champions League. RBK have only won one of their last 13 group stage matches despite having two Europa League campaigns, as opposed to a harder Champions League campaign, in their last three years. Out of their eight qualifiers this year, they have conceded six goals, three of which were to Celtic when they actually met earlier in the season during the Champions League early qualifying stages. They played each other twice with Celtic winning 3-1 at Celtic Park and then drawing 0-0 in Norway, knocking Rosenborg out of the UCL and into the UEL.

Since losing to Celtic, the Norwegians have been pretty dominant, they have won nine of their 10 matches and have scored 24 times but conceded eight. It has been pretty easy for them in a league they have won three of the last three years but with them only leading Brann by two points, this Rosenborg side isn’t the strongest is has been in the past and Celtic should take advantage of this.

With the teams already meeting twice in the Champions League qualifiers this season, Celtic winning the first and drawing the second, we’re expecting Celtic to recreate that form in this one. None of the 18 players who were available at that 3-1 win have since left and with Celtic now unbeaten in six, we can only see this going one way. Rosenborg have been pretty solid in Norway but have conceded five in their last three league games so we expect the Hoops to get at least one in this game at Celtic Park where they have only lost one of their last 25 matches. We’re going to back another 3-1 victory for Celtic to match the win they got earlier in the season against the Norwegian champions.