Craig Gordon likely to start Thursday's Champions League clash | OneFootball

With Celtic assured of a place in the Champions League third qualifying round following a 5-0 first-leg victory over Estonia’s Nomme Kaiju, Neil Lennon sees this as a perfect opportunity to give goalkeeper Craig Gordon a proper run-out.

The 36-year-old hasn’t featured once since losing the starting job to Scott Bain at the end of 2018 but Lennon has yet to define him as the bonafide back-up this season.

“I wouldn’t say that, no. It’s too early for me to make that assessment. It’s a good opportunity Craig Gordon has a good chance of starting as well.

“He didn’t play when I came in due to a knee problem, but he’s over that now and he’s training well, so we’ll see how we go with the two of them.

“Craig has really impressed me in training and in the bounce games that we’ve played, and Scott has been brilliant for me.

“Since I came in, he’s been absolutely outstanding. It’s something that we’ll gauge as we go along.

“I’m not going to treat Scott Bain badly, if he’s performing well, as he has done, then it’s not a difficult thing to keep the momentum going that way.

“I’ll probably go with gut instinct as we go along, and Stevie Woods will be important in that as well. But I don’t want to turn this into a pissing match between the two of them.

“I don’t want to put any extra pressure on either one of them. I’ve got the luxury of having two very good goalkeepers at the minute, and if called upon, I’m sure either of them will come in and do a terrific job for me.

Meanwhile, Celtic new boy Christopher Jullien is set to start and make his competitive debut while Callum McGregor and James Forrest will both have the night off as they weren’t included in the traveling squad.