Celtic handed huge Champions League boost as opponents set to be without six first team players
Serie A giants Atalanta are missing a number of their outstanding performers
Celtic will look to get their Champions League campaign back on track when they make the trip to Italy to take on last season’s Europa League winners Atalanta.
The Hoops have three points on the board from their opening two games after a sensational 5-1 win over Slovan Bratislava, but were unable to lay a glove on last season’s finalists Borussia Dortmund in a resounding 7-1 defeat in Germany.
Gian Piero Gasperini’s side have proven themselves to be a force in Europe in recent years and will provide a stern test to the Scottish champions’ hopes of progressing to the next round.
But the timing of the fixture could be ideal for Celtic as they play Atalanta at a time when the Italian side are expected to miss as many as six key stars, as per the Daily Record.
Central defender Sead Kolasinac, formerly of Arsenal, is one of the players that’s expected to miss the contest. The Bosnia and Herzegovina international missed last Saturday’s game against Venezia with flu and faces a race against time to get back to match fitness.
He is expected to join fellow centre back and club captain Rafael Toloi on the sidelines along with Ivory Coast full-back Odilon Kossounou, who lifted the Bundesliga title with Bayer Leverkusen last season.
Former West Ham United striker Gianluca Scamacca is also a huge injury doubt for the contest, he fired in 19 goals across all competitions last term.
Italian midfielder Marco Brescianini and defensive prospect Giorgio Scalvini have also been ruled out of the contest through injury.
Atalanta have had an avalanche of injury issues to deal with this season, but have so far coped well with the demands of Europe. The Italians started their Champions League campaign with a goalless draw with Premier League title hopefuls Arsenal and then secured a 3-0 win against Shakhtar Donetsk in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.
They currently sit sixth in the Serie A table with four victories, one draw and three defeats in their opening eight games. With 18 goals they are the highest scoring team in the division so far and a great deal of those have come from Mateo Retegui, who is topping the goal scoring charts with eight in eight since signing from Genoa.