Lazio v Celtic Europa League preview: where to watch, predicted line-ups, team news

Lazio and Celtic meet on UEFA Europa League Matchday 4 at 18:55 CET on Thursday 7 November. This page will update with team news, quotes and expert analysis as kick-off approaches.

LAZIO V CELTIC: BUILD-UP

Where to watch the game on TV

Fans can find their local UEFA Champions League broadcast partner(s) here.

Simone Inzaghi, Lazio coach
"We have to win and move up the table. We know it will be a difficult game – Celtic are strong and have a classy team. We have a few players out injured, but I still have to make some choices regarding the starting line-up. I want my team to play like they did at Celtic Park, but with a different result. You can't afford to make mistakes at this level, so we need to pay more attention this time."

Neil Lennon, Celtic manager
"It is a game we are very excited about and very motivated for. We are under no illusions as to how big a job it is to come here and get a result. We are here to get a positive result and there's a belief that we can do that ... In the context of the group, it’s such an important game. It's my first time in Rome so it’s very special. It's a game we are very excited about and motivated for."

Possible line-ups

Lazio: Strakosha; Vavro, Acerbi, Luiz Felipe; Lazzari, Milinković-Savić, Parolo, Berisha, Lulić; Luis Alberto, Immobile
Out: Proto (wrist), Radu (not specified), Marušić (fatigue)
Doubtful: Caicedo (fatigue), Correa (calf), Immobile (fatigue)

Celtic: Forster; Elhamed, Jullien, Ajer, Hayes/Taylor; Brown, McGregor; Forrest, Christie, Elyounoussi; Édouard
Out: Šimunović (knee), Bayo (knee), Griffiths (thigh), Bolingoli (hamstring)

The state of play

Celtic will be through if they win and Rennes do not beat CFR Cluj in the other Group E Matchday 4 fixture.

Reporters' views

Vieri Capretta, Lazio reporter
The Biancocelesti have hit top form and have the recent results – three straight league wins, including away to Fiorentina and AC Milan – to show for it. Celtic can expect a very different outfit to the one that lost in Glashow. Ciro Immobile has reached 100 goals for the club, scoring four in the last three games, and is likely to be the hosts' primary threat.

Alex O'Henley, Celtic reporter
Celtic travel to Rome having secured a place in next month's Scottish League Cup final - their 30th consecutive victory in domestic cup competitions - but their statistics in Europe are equally impressive this term. The Hoops are one victory from equalling their club record for European wins in a season, but Neil Lennon would perhaps settle for a point at the Stadio Olimpico – that would be six successive European away fixtures without defeat.

Previous meetings

• Lazio had never faced Scottish opponents in UEFA competition until Matchday 3, when they led at half-time in Glasgow through Manuel Lazzari's first European goal only to concede twice after the interval, Ryan Christie and, in the 89th minute, Christopher Jullien turning the game in Celtic's favour. That result left Celtic on seven points in Group E, with Lazio on three.

• Celtic have nevertheless won just six of their 26 UEFA fixtures against Italian clubs, none of them in Italy, where their record is D3 L9. They have been defeated without scoring on five of their last six visits, the exception a 1-1 draw at Udinese in their only previous UEFA Europa League group stage encounter on Italian soil, in December 2011.

• The Bhoys did, however, emerge triumphant from their first, and most important, fixture against an Italian side outside Glasgow, beating Internazionale 2-1 in Lisbon to win the 1966/67 European Cup final.

Form guide

Lazio
• Lazio overcame Atalanta 2-0 in last season's Coppa Italia final to lift the trophy for the seventh time and gain direct access to the UEFA Europa League group stage – a competition they exited in the round of 32 last season after losing home (0-1) and away (0-2) to Sevilla.

• Runners-up to Inter in the 1997/98 UEFA Cup, the Biancocelesti's last six UEFA Europa League group stage participations have all been successful – after failure in the first – and they have topped their section on three occasions. Their best performances came in 2012/13 and 2017/18, when they reached the quarter-finals.

• Lazio's home record in the UEFA Europa League group stage is W15 D4 L3. They were on a run of 17 group games unbeaten in Rome (W13 D4) until they lost 2-1 to Eintracht Frankfurt on Matchday 6 last year – a defeat that was immediately followed by another as they succumbed to Sevilla in the round of 32.

Celtic
• Celtic won the domestic treble of Premiership, Scottish Cup and League Cup for an unprecedented third straight season in 2018/19, but in Europe they missed out on the UEFA Champions League group stage and lost five matches out of eight in the UEFA Europa League, including both round of 32 encounters with Valencia (0-2 h, 0-1 a).

• This term Celtic again failed to negotiate the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round, losing to CFR (1-1 a, 3-4 h), but a comprehensive play-off win against Swedish champions AIK (2-0 h, 4-1 a) enabled them to reach the UEFA Europa League group stage for the sixth time. Two of their previous five participations at this juncture have been successful, including last season, but they have yet to progress beyond the round of 32.

• Until last season's Matchday 5 victory at Rosenborg (1-0), the Glasgow club had never won outside Scotland in the UEFA Europa League. Their other 18 away matches in the competition proper have brought nine draws and nine defeats.

Links and trivia

• Celtic's Olivier Ntcham played with Genoa between 2015 and 2017 and was a team-mate – and fellow loanee – of Lazio's Danilo Cataldi at the club in 2016/17.

Lazio's Jordan Lukaku and Celtic's Boli Bolingoli are cousins©Getty Images

• Lazio's Jordan Lukaku and Celtic's Boli Bolingoli are cousins.

• Lazio are appearing in the UEFA Europa League group stage for the eighth time, matching Salzburg's competition record.

• Callum McGregor signed a new five-year with the club on Wednesday.

•If Greg Taylor starts at left-back it will be a European debut.

The coaches

• Lazio boss since April 2016, when he replaced Stefano Pioli, Simone Inzaghi represented the club as a forward between 1999 and 2010, winning the Italian double in his debut campaign and the Coppa Italia twice more in later years. The younger brother of fellow ex-Italian international Filippo Inzaghi, with whom he played at home-town outfit Piacenza, he began coaching Lazio's youth teams immediately after hanging up his boots. His first trophy as head coach was the 2017 Italian Super Cup, his second the Coppa Italia two years later.

• Having just left Hibernian, former Northern Ireland international Neil Lennon returned for a second spell as Celtic manager in February 2019 following Brendan Rodgers' mid-season move to Leicester City, and duly sealed the club's 'treble treble' of domestic trophies. He had previously served Celtic as player (2000–07) and manager (2010–14), capturing 16 trophies in that time, though it was at Leicester, where he won two League Cups under his compatriot Martin O'Neill, that he first made his mark as an industrious and effective midfield anchorman.