Celtic v Lazio: Visitors out of sorts in Serie A yet stacked with talent

Current coach Maurizio Sarri, best remembered in the UK for his brief Europa League-winning tenure at Chelsea, led Lazio to their best league finish since the 2000 title as they finished distant runners-up to Napoli, who created their own history last season.

However, a poor start to this campaign has left them 16th in Serie A after seven matches.

After a 2-0 loss at Milan at the weekend, Sarri was not slow to criticise the state of his squad in the wake of what he deemed a poor summer window. Given the club’s owner, Claudio Lotito, had declared himself happy with their transfer business, it would appear he is at odds with the man who picks those players ahead of their trip to Glasgow.

So will that aid Celtic, who beat Lazio home and away in the Europa League in 2019?

Serbian midfielder Sergej Milinkovic-Savic played in both of those games but left this summer for Al Hilal.

Cover arrived with Matteo Guendozi on loan from Marseille and talented Italy under-21 Nicolo Rovella, who was borrowed from Juventus but with an option to buy.

Japan international Daichi Kamada was signed from Eintracht Frankfurt. He was among the scorers in the penalty shoot-out victory over Rangers in the 2022 Europa League final.

Nicolo Casale and Alessio Romagnoli are an excellent centre-back pairing, who performed to great effect last season.

Serial winner Pedro is still going at the age of 36, having crossed the Rome divide in 2021. The winger has scored once against Celtic in three Champions League victories for Barcelona, but also started when the Catalans were famously toppled in Glasgow in 2012.

And then there’s another old campaigner up front, skipper and Euro 2020 winner Ciro Immobile, who scored against Celtic in Rome four years ago and whose goal record for Lazio is superb – almost 200 in 300 appearances.

The threats are there, but Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers will hope to capitalise on an unhappy and out of sorts side that is a pale imitation of Eriksson’s history-makers.