Manager: We want to deliver Boxing Day delight at Paradise

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Celtic F.C.

·24 December 2024

Manager: We want to deliver Boxing Day delight at Paradise

Celtic will enjoy a rare post-Christmas home game when they play host to Motherwell on Boxing Day (KO: 3pm).

And Brendan Rodgers is looking for his side to provide some festive cheer for the 60,000 supporters who will head to Paradise on Thursday.

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The team has already delivered an early present in the shape of the League Cup trophy and the Hoops sit top of the Premiership tree at Christmas, nine points clear of their nearest rivals.

Now the aim is to secure another three points in what is the penultimate match of 2024.

Speaking ahead of clash with Motherwell on December 26 Brendan Rodgers said: “It’s always great to play in front of our own supporters.

'We love playing at home, we love being at home. The crowd give us great support, like they did at Dundee United.'

“But it’s one that we’re looking forward to, one we want to take three points and we want to put on a performance that merits all the great support that we get.”

It’s the second meeting between the sides this season, with the Hoops having won 3-0 at Fir Park back in October, courtesy of goals from Luke McCowan, Alistair Johnston and Adam Idah.

And the Celtic manager is expecting a tough encounter this week against a Motherwell side currently fourth in the table.

“It will be tough,” he said. “They’ll defend the space deep and we’ll have to be really bright and clever in order to break through that pressure.

“We had a challenging game against them earlier in the season so I would expect the same. We would just need to be more clinical in our game than what we have been recently.

“We had a number of guys out on Sunday so hopefully we arrive into Thursday’s game, we’ll see how they are but we should have one or two back to give us that depth in our squad.”