Red Star Belgrade v Celtic – Team news, match officials, KO time & where to watch

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The Celtic Star

·23 September 2025

Red Star Belgrade v Celtic – Team news, match officials, KO time & where to watch

After the frustration at Celtic once again shooting ourselves in the foot in the Champions League play-off against Kairat Almaty, the Europa League is the consolation prize and in a few ways it has its advantages…

Brendan Rodgers applauds the Celtic support. Partick Thistle v Celtic. Premier Sports League Cup. Sunday 21 September. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

Firstly there is a realistic chance of collecting more co-efficient points in a campaign in the Europa League, give our board’s apparent lack of ambition to allow the club to compete in the Champions League and secondly there’s a chance – however slim – that we could actually win the Europa League. Celtic at the very least should be making the knock-out rounds as the a failure in the group stages would be dreadful after what has happened this summer.

Video OneFootball

Colby Donovan, Callum McGregor and Brendan Rodgers all smiles after the match. Partick Thistle v Celtic. Premier Sports League Cup. Sunday 21 September. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

Brendan Rodgers and a player will speak to the media today when they arrive in Belgrade and we will report on that later this afternoon. His side take in Red Star (aka Crvena Zvezda) who have made a tremendous start to their domestic season and will fancy their chances against Celtic. It’s clear that Celtic will have to be at our very best to take anything from this Europa League opener.

However like Celtic, Red Star had their own Champions League Play-off woes against so-called minnows, losing 2-1 at home to Cypriot champions Pafos then going out after a 1-1 second leg draw in Cyprus .

The Celtic manager had this to say about playing in the Europa League this season:

“Any European competition, of course, is a great honour to be in. We always want to be in the Champions League. That’s where I believe the club should be. But if we’re not there, then, of course, we embrace this competition and we’re excited by it and how far we can go in it.”

Celtic Team News

The only addition to the squad that was available for the Premier Sports League Cup quarter-final win over Partick Thistle on Sunday is the addition of Anthony Ralston, who resumed training yesterday. It’s a choice between the experience Ralston offers and the youthful attributes of teenager Colby Donovan with the latter likely to get the nod as Ralston may not be match-fit after being out for a few games.

Kasper Schmeichel at Firhill. Partick Thistle v Celtic. Premier Sports League Cup. Sunday 21 September. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

Kasper Schmeichel will return after Vil Sinisalo’s usual cup-tie opportunity at Firhill and Kieran Tierney will be at left-back with the usual pairing of Cameron Carter-Vickers and Liam Scales at the centre of the Celtic defence.

The midfield three will be Callum McGregor, Reo Hatate and Benji Nygren with all three looking better at the weekend.

Sebastian Tounekti during the Partick Thistle v Celtic. Premier Sports League Cup. Sunday 21 September. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

Up front Yang will get the nod on the right wing with the hugely impressive Sebastian Tounekti on the left wing and Daizen Maeda through the middle.

On the bench will be Sinisalo, Doohan; McCowan, Ralston, Engels, Murray, Bernardo, Saracchi, Iheanacho, Balikwisha and Forrest.

Predicted Celtic Team

So accordingly our predicted Celtic team for match in Belgrade on Wednesday night is as follows:

Schmeichel; Donovan, Carter-Vickers, Scales, Tierney; McGregor(c), Hatate, Nygren; Yang, Maeda and Sebastian Tounekti

Match Officials

Romanian referee Radu Petrescu has the whistle for the Red Star Belgrade v Celtic Europa League group stage opener. Celtic supporters might recognise him as he’s handled a few Celtic matches previously with Celtic losing both games to Spanish opposition – Barcelona in 2016 (7-0!) and Valencia in 2019.

Petrescu is joined by assistants Radu Ghinguleac and Mircea Mihail Grigoriu while the Fourth Official is Andrei Chivulete. Italian match official Michael Fabbri is VAR and his assistant is Romania’s Marcel Birsan.

Kick-off Time

Stadion Rajko Mitić in Belgrade

The Red Star Belgrade v Celtic Europa League opener takes place at the Stadion Rajko Mitić in Belgrade and the match kicks off at 9pm CPT*.

Where to Watch

The game is exclusively live on TNT Sports 2 with coverage starting an hour before kick-off (7pm).

Predicted Score

Daizen Maeda at Firhill. Partick Thistle v Celtic. Premier Sports League Cup. Sunday 21 September. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

A tough away match to start the campaign against a side who like Celtic have started their domestic season well but were shocked in the Champions League play-offs by Pafos, a side making their first appearance at that level. Celtic can get to their defence and we certainly have threats of our own especially down that left flank. This could end up as an entertaining 2-2 draw However Red Star will be favourites and a Celtic win would be a significant achievement for Brendan’s side. We should be happy with a point from this one.

COYBIG!

*Celtic Park Time.

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