Match Pictures | Matches: 2023 – 2024
Trivia
- KO: 11am UK Time; 19:00 Local time Monday; Nissan Stadium, Yokohama, Japan; only on Celtic TV
- Summer friendlies begin.
- Two closed doors training games were played v Portimonense S.C. (Portugal) prior to this match. Not included on this site.
- Japan Tour: Two matches; Celtic confirmed cancellation of Korean visit due to promoter’s contractual failings, as did Wolves and Majorca
- Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou resigned on 5th June to move to Spurs. This is the first match for new manager (exc closed doors games).
- Brendan Rodgers returns for second stint as Celtic manager! Others considered Merasca and Knutsen.
- BBC were banned from Rodgers first press conference! Not clear publicly why exactly!
- First game of the new season.
- New Celtic home top revealed: very negative response!
- Kyogo & Maeda sign 4 year extensions. Callum McGregor has signed a new five-year contract.
- Alistair Johnston may miss the first two months of new season after ankle surgery.
- Transfers :
- In: Odin Holm (£2.5m Vålerenga); Marco Tilio (1.4m from Australia); Iwata (converted to perm from loan); Yang Hyun-jun (£2m from Gangwon);
- Out: Barkas (freed), Ronan Ferns (Brighton 250k), Ewan Otoo (free), Tsoanela Letsosa to @LommelSKOff (free), Mooy (retired), Adam Montgomery joins Fleetwood Town on a season-long loan, Jota to Al ittihad (25m), Adam Brooks move to Scottish Championship side @ICTFC; Tsoanelo Letsosa moved to Lommel SK;
- Reports (in): (lots of rumours). Interest in FC Volendam centre-back Xavier Mbuyamba, Daniel Amartey defender/midfielder at Leicester City. Gangwon FC winger Yang Hyun-Jun; Gwangju pair Eom ji-sung and Jeong Ho-yeon of Korea; Marco Tilio from Australia; Arsenal player Rob Holding; Vera of Corinthians; Tierney back on loan (nonsense click bait from tabloids), Donny van de Beek of Man U; Future FC midfielder Mohamed Reda; Celtic have contacted Gremio over their forward Ferreira
- Celtic stepping up efforts to sign Gangwon FC winger Hyun-jun Yang. an approach made last month, but his side reluctant to sell during their season.It’s understood Yang has told club chiefs that he wants to move to Celtic.
- Reports (out): O’Riley to Brighton?; Stephen Welsh target for Serie A Italian side Hellas Verona; Hatate to Spurs; Soro to Greece,Abada to Ajax or Portugal, Hazard to Plymouth Argyle
- Another promising academy prospect lost: Ronan Ferns £250K bid from Brighton accepted.
- Celtic player Aaron Mooy retired from play
- Mikey Johnston scored his first international goal in Ireland’s 3-0 defeat of Gibraltar.
- Celtic coach Gavin Strachan turned down an offer to become manager of English League One side Shrewsbury Town
- Ex-Celt Robbie Keane made manager at Israeli giants Maccabi Tel Aviv. Ex Celt Timo Weah agrees Juventus transfer £10m move
- Euros: Scotland wins over Norway and Georgia. 4/4 wins, top of the group.
- Media: Scottish sporting journalist Roddy Forsyth steps down after announcing he’s suffering from Parkinsons. We wish him & his family all the strength in the world.
- Craig Brown, former Scotland manager, died aged 82. RIP His brother is ex Celtic general manager Jock Brown.
- Politics: SNP political giant Winnie Ewing passed away. RIP
- Celtic forming a partnership with #LigaZwa side, & 9-time Austrian champions, FC Admiral Wacker. The deal is expected to focus on player development & loan deals
- Hearts to slash away ticket allocations facing Tynecastle scramble fory.
Summary
‘Flushing out the mistakes’ – Brendan Rodgers
(joebloggscity of TheCelticWiki):
Celtic hit for six! Rodgers first game back as Celtic manager, with a lot of questions on the defence & goalkeeper. Too much shouldn’t be taken from a friendly BUT the obvious issues should NOT be ignored.
Kudos to Maeda for his hat-trick in his home country, and Maeda played very well too with the assists, but poor from Starfelt, Hart and others. Turnbull scored a brilliant long-range goal at the death.
It wasn’t the first team full defence, so some leeway but Rodgers has struggled in handling defences in his managerial career, we hope this is NOT a sign for anything to worry about.
At the prematch talk show:
Nakamura: “You’ve already scored a couple of goals [against Rangers], haven’t you?”
Kyogo: “Five this year”
Nakamura: “Excellent”.
Teams
CELTIC:
Hart (Siegrist 46), Iwata (McPherson 67), Starfelt (Scales 67), Kobayashi (Welsh 60), Taylor (Bernabei 67) McGregor (Kelly 67), Hatate (Turnbull 67), O’Riley (Oh 67), Haksabanovic (Summers 67), Abada (Forrest 67), Maeda (Kyogo 67).
Subs: Bain, Scales, Bernabei, Lawal, McPherson, Turnbull, Kelly, Forrest, Summers, Vata, Kyogo, Oh.
Goals: Maeda 6 & 21 & 42, Turnbull 90+2
Assists:
YOKOHAMA F MARINOS:
Ichimori, Yamane, Hatanaka (Kamijima 62), Edouardo (Saneto 62), Nagato (Sakakibara 62), Watanabe (Inoue 46 (Kimura 89)), Kida (Fujita 62), Junior (Uenaka 46), Mizunuma, Lopes (Miyaichi 46), Elber.
Subs: Iikura, Shirasaka, Yoshio, Matheus, Murakami, Sugimoto.
Goals:(Lopes 5 & 59, Mizunuma 23, Saneto 66, Miyaichi 85 & 88)
Assists:
Ref:
Att:
Stadium: Nissan Stadium, Yokohama, Japan
Articles
- Match Report (see below)
Pictures
Match Links
Articles
Celtic reaction: Daizen Maeda dazzles, duo impress, defensive culprits – how the 6-4 defeat to Yokohama unfolded
https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/celtic/celtic-reaction-daizen-maeda-dazzles-duo-impress-defensive-culprits-how-the-6-4-defeat-to-yokohama-unfolded-4224513
Judging by the spills and thrills produced by Celtic against Yokahama F Marinos, entertainment values look as if they are unlikely to be impacted by Brendan Rodgers replacing Ange Postecoglou at the helm. Too much entertainment in the wrong areas could be the issue, though.
Andrew Smith
By Andrew Smith
Published 19th Jul 2023, 13:47 BST
Updated 19th Jul 2023, 13:47 BST
Comment
The tale of a tussle that ended with an excruciating 6-4 defeat for the Scottish champions in the first of their two-game Japanese tour, was they were loose and lacking in defence after proving lightning going forward. A familiar story when they have encountered capable teams in Europe in recent years. Rodgers is likely to be able to weigh the minuses and a contest played at a fair lick without grievous concerns. Even as he will be annoyed that the scoreline ended up so ultimately unpleasant, courtesy of Ryo Miyaichi striking twice in the closing seven minutes. The opening period seemed so different, at least in terms of Celtic’s endeavours in the final third against the J-League title holders. Daizen Maeda was electric in plundering a first half hat-trick against his old club, and he could have had five with two good openings in addition to his three pristine finishes. He was ably abetted through Liel Abada and Reo Hatate delivering stand-out displays. These three allowed Celtic to spring forward with menace – Hatate’s holding strength and piercing passing setting up a fifth minute equaliser – while the Israeli winger was dynamic on the right flank. As he provided crossing assists for two goals that meant Celtic went 2-1 up inside 21 minutes. Only for Kevin Muscat’s men to respond instantly before and a scintillating move that witnessed the ball moved at pace through the midfield allowed Maeda to bring up his triple for a 3-2 half-time lead with a neat angled clip.
All Celtic’s good work in the final third threatened to be undone by the disarray at the back. Certain mitigation could be cited for that with injuries issues depriving Rodgers of cornerstone Cameron Carter-Vickers and right backs Alistair Johnston and Anthony Ralston. The full-back losses meant Tomoki Iwata was to the right of a back four in which Yuki Kobayashi partnered Carl Starfelt. Yet it was the senior men that could be apportioned blame for the loss of cheap goals. Celtic initially appearing capable of overcoming this handicap. At least until a host of changes caused them to lose their momentum, their earlier musketeers Maeda, Abada and Hatate all withdrawn before the closing stages.
None of which offers any excuses for Joe Hart’s howler that resulted in a third minute opener. The ball shepherded back to him by Starfelt, he seemed to have to clasped on the ground before allowing it to pop out for Anderson Lopes to accept the gift. In the 23rd minute Greg Taylor lost Kota Mizunama at the back post before, almost on the hour, Starfelt slashed the ball into the air in a what-is-he-doing-moment that led to the same player latching on to it and tucking past substitute Benjamin Siegrist. Starfelt appeared at fault when it became 4-3 in the 66th minute as Celtic’s defensive line was as ragged as the Rockies in Yuki Saneto being able to run into space and collect a ball over the top he punched in at the near post. Miyaichi then made it messy with an 83rd minute header and an easy finish six minutes later. A deflected David Turnbull drive in added time not enough to put any real sheen on the result.
YOKOHAMA F MARINOS 6 CELTIC 4: MAEDA HAT-TRICK AS HOOPS HIT FOR SIX
CELTIC lost out in 10-goal blitz as they were hit for six by their Japanese hosts in the Nissan Stadium.
The Hoops were leading 3-2 at the interval following a superb hat-trick from Daizen Maeda before Brendan Rodgers’ men were caught up in an extraordinary second-half whirlwind.
The defence went awol as Marinos clicked into gear to thump in four goals and the visitors’ sole reply was a late consolation effort from David Turnbull which put a slightly better complexion on the scoreline.
Naturally, the result is of little consequence and the main exercise of a lively encounter was to work on match fitness against a very capable team who are already halfway through their league season. In the end, that extra stamina went a long way to the startling turnaround in fortunes.
Maeda certainly enjoyed his return to the club he left for Parkhead in January 2022 as he fired in a trio after the hosts had been gifted the lead inside four minutes when Anderson Lopes took advantage of a slip from Joe Hart and his defenders to roll the ball into the inviting net.
Two minutes later, the Hoops speedster levelled when he finished off a brilliant move between Reo Hatate and Liel Abada that saw the Israeli winger slide the ball across from the right with his team-mate sweeping the opportunity into the roof of the net.
Playing through the middle, Maeda put Rodgers’ men ahead in the 21st minute and once again it was Abada setting up the opportunity with a cunning pass to the backpost which was finished off smartly by his team-mate.
The watching fans hardly had time to draw breath when Marinos equalised through a header from Kota Mizunuma only moments later.
Maeda then forced an amazing reflex save from Jun Ichimori when he attempted a sublime lob from 40 yards. The keeper just managed to scramble back and tip the ball over the bar.
With three minutes of an exciting and entertaining first period to go, the pacy raider did manage to claim a hat-trick when he first-timed 12-yard effort low into the corner of the net after Tomoki Iwata had set him up.
Just before the hour mark, it was all-square again when Brazilian Anderson capitalised on a miskick from Carl Starfelt to race through and tuck the ball behind substitute netminder Benji Siegrist.
In the 66th minute, the Swiss keeper was once more retrieving the ball from the back of his net when the unmarked Yuki Saneto sprinted clear and stroked his effort home. That was the signal for Rodgers to make nine changes to give some players valuable game time.
With five minutes to go, Ryo Muyaichi headed in No.5 and the winger struck again only moments later.
Turnbull, who had replaced Hatate in the 67th minute, walloped home a long-drive in stoppage time.
Next up is a meeting with Gamba Osaka on Saturday before the champions head home.
Celts lose out in Nissan Stadium goal-fest
https://www.celticfc.com/news/2023/july/19/celts-lose-out-in-nissan-stadium-goal-fest/
First Team
By Ryan Maher in Japan
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19 Jul 2023, 1:16 pm
Pre-season friendly
Wednesday, July 19, 2023
Nissan Stadium, Yokohama, Japan
YOKOHAMA F MARINOS… 6
(Lopes 5 & 59, Mizunuma 23, Saneto 66, Miyaichi 85 & 88)
CELTIC… 4
(Maeda 6 & 21 & 42, Turnbull 90+2)
The Japanese fans were treated to a goal-fest at the Nissan Stadium in Yokohama, as Celtic opened their tour of Japan with a 6-4 defeat to Yokohama F Marinos.
The opening 45 minutes was all about Daizen Maeda, as the former Yokohama player returned to his old ground to score a hat-trick and send the Hoops into a 3-2 lead at half-time. However, four goals in the second-half, with a late strike from David Turnbull, turned things around for the J. League champions in what was an important test for the Hoops ahead of the league campaign.
Pre-season is all about getting the fitness levels right and these matches provide the chance to build that match-practice to hit the competitive campaign hard from the get-go.
Brendan Rodgers did say before the match however that he wanted to try and put on a good display for the Celtic fans that travelled to the Nissan Stadium from all corners of the globe and from all corners of Japan.
If the fans wanted entertainment, then they certainly received it as inside the opening 45 minutes they had five goals to cheer and a sublime hat-trick and performance from Yokohama old boy, Maeda.
It was the hosts that scored first inside four minutes, when Anderson Lopes took advantage of a mix-up at the back between Joe Hart and the defence to take the ball from the keeper and tap into an empty net.
Two minutes later and Daizen got his first goal of the evening. A sublime pass from Reo Hatate split the Yokohama defence and sent Liel Abada racing down on goal, and the Israel internationalist had the presence of mind to square the ball to Daizen to slot home.
Daizen was playing in the No.9 position, one he usually occupies for his national team, and on 21 minutes he showed again the reason why he plays there for Japan as he put Celtic 2-1 into the lead. It was Abada who once again laid it on a plate, this time sending the ball across the face of the goal after some brilliant passing football, and there again was the 25-year-old at the back post.
This time though, it was Yokohama that equalised two minutes later with Kota Mizunuma heading a deep cross past Hart.
Daizen was playing with extreme confidence and he almost secured the hat-trick in unbelievable fashion, catching the goalkeeper off his line from 40 yards, but Jun Ichimori just scrambled back in time to tip the long-range effort wide.
Not to be undone, he grabbed the third goal three minutes before the end of the first-half, this time set up by his former Yokohama team-mate Tomoki Iwata for a first-time finish from 12 yards right into the bottom left corner
Daizen.jpg
Would we get the same action in the second-half? Well, inside three minutes it should have been 3-3 with substitute Asahi Uenaka heading wide from six yards out after being picked out unmarked in the area.
Would Daizen add to his three in the first-half? Well, on the 54th minute, he so nearly had a fourth, this time Callum McGregor dinked a ball over the defence and there was the striker to volley an effort on goal, but the goalkeeper made a smart save.
There would be an equaliser for the J.League team on 59 minutes. Carl Starfelt lost the ball in defence with the attempted clearance falling straight into the path of Anderson Lopes, which gave the Brazilian forward the task of running through on goal and slotting the ball into the bottom right corner.
The home side were ramping the pressure up and it was soon felt as they made it 4-3 on 66 minutes. One ball through the heart of defence was pounced on by Yuki Saneto and bearing down on goal he applied a first-time finish to poke the ball past Siegirst.
Before the game could restart, the manager turned to the bench and made nine changes, giving an opportunity for the majority of the squad to get more important minutes into the legs.
And it was one of those nine changes Hyeongyu Oh that came so close to making it 4-4 with nine minutes to play, but the South Korean stumbled just at the last moment as James Forrest picked out the striker unmarked with a perfect cross.
Ryo Muyaichi is a name known to football fans from his time at Arsenal and despite being better known for his pace, the winger leapt highest on the 85th minute to head Yokohama into a 5-3 lead.
The winger then made it 6-3 with two minutes remaining with a calm first-time finish, and then David Turbull crashed home a powerful shot from long-range in stoppage time to round off the high-scoring contest at the Nissan Stadium.
Next up is a trip to Osaka to face Gamba Osaka on Saturday to round off the tour of Japan.
CELTIC: Hart (Siegrist 46), Iwata (McPherson 67), Starfelt (Scales 67), Kobayashi (Welsh 60), Taylor (Bernabei 67) McGregor (Kelly 67), Hatate (Turnbull 67), O’Riley (Oh 67), Haksabanovic (Summers 67), Abada (Forrest 67), Maeda (Kyogo 67).
Subs: Bain, Scales, Bernabei, Lawal, McPherson, Turnbull, Kelly, Forrest, Summers, Vata, Kyogo, Oh.
YOKOHAMA F MARINOS: Ichimori, Yamane, Hatanaka (Kamijima 62), Edouardo (Saneto 62), Nagato (Sakakibara 62), Watanabe (Inoue 46 (Kimura 89)), Kida (Fujita 62), Junior (Uenaka 46), Mizunuma, Lopes (Miyaichi 46), Elber.
Subs: Iikura, Shirasaka, Yoshio, Matheus, Murakami, Sugimoto.
‘Flushing out the mistakes’ – Brendan Rodgers dissects Celtic friendly defeat and reveals change of plan for Gamba Osaka
https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/celtic/flushing-out-the-mistakes-brendan-rodgers-dissects-celtic-friendly-defeat-and-reveals-change-of-plan-for-gamba-osaka-4224913
Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers was keen to take the positives from a 6-4 defeat to Yokohama F. Marinos in the opening game of his side’s pre-season tour of Japan.
By Oliver Anderson
Published 19th Jul 2023, 16:35 BST
Updated 19th Jul 2023, 16:35 BST
Comment
Former Yokohama player Daizen Maeda returned to the Nissan Stadium to score a first-half hat-trick to give the cinch Premiership champions a 3-2 interval lead.
But Hoops midfielder David Turnbull scored what was effectively a late consolation as the J.League champions, who are midway through their league campaign, scored six goals through Anderson Lopes (two), Kota Mizunuma, Yuki Sameto and Ryo Miyaichi (two) in a match which saw numerous substitutions.
Rodgers, who recently returned for a second spell as Celtic boss, told the club’s official website: “It was a tough schedule for us in terms of arriving here so quickly. This is a good team and they are pretty much three-quarters of the way through their season.
Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers (middle) ponders his side’s 6-4 friendly defeat to Yokohama F Marinos at the Nissan Stadium. (Photo by KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP via Getty Images)
Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers (middle) ponders his side’s 6-4 friendly defeat to Yokohama F Marinos at the Nissan Stadium. (Photo by KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP via Getty Images)
“It was perfect for what we needed with the fitness levels we need to be at, and there’s still a lot of work to do on that front. We played two behind closed doors and each game is a step-up in performance levels.
“We can’t lose track of the priority at this stage. You can never go on results and we need to build that fitness and you can see Yokohama were that bit sharper. We will get to that point but we have to focus on our physicality and that will improve over the coming weeks. The main priority was our fitness and we will have benefited tonight.
“You can see whenever it works well, some of the patterns in penetrating the space in behind to attract opponents out and then counter them with the ball, they did that very well. In other moments we were maybe hesitant with the ball and maybe didn’t get our pass away quick enough.
“That’s what pre-season is for. It’s for flushing out all of those mistakes and building your fitness up, and we can build through that over the course of pre-season.”
Celtic now travel to Osaka for the final leg of their tour of Japan when they take on Gamba Osaka on Saturday, and Rodgers is likely to make changes. He said: “We wanted to really push a number of players tonight. So by the time they were coming off at 65 minutes you could see the tiredness in the legs.
“We needed to get them through that and come the weekend we will go back to two 45 minutes because of the heat and everything else. That will allow us to get back to a good place physically after this trip in the following weeks.
“There’s a lot of work for us to do, enjoyable work, but we look forward to the next challenge.”