Celtic handed huge Champions League boost as opponents set to be without six first team players

Celtic will travel to Italy to play Atalanta, the winners of the Europa League the previous season, with the goal of

getting their Champions League campaign back on track.

After a thrilling 5-1 victory over Slovan Bratislava, the Hoops have three points from their first two games. However,

they were soundly defeated 7-1 in Germany by Borussia Dortmund, the winners of the previous season. In recent

years, Gian Piero Gasperini’s team has shown that they are a formidable force in Europe.

However, Celtic’s schedule could not be more favorable as they take on Atalanta during a period when the Italian

team could be without up to six important players, according to the Daily Record.

Sead Kolasinac, a former Arsenal player, is one of the players anticipated to miss the match. The Bosnia and

Herzegovina international is in a battle against time to recover from flu-related absence from last Saturday’s match

against Venezia.

He is anticipated to be sidelined with Ivory Coast full-back Odilon Kossounou, who won the Bundesliga with Bayer

Leverkusen the previous season, and fellow center back and club captain Rafael Toloi.

Gianluca Scamacca, a former West Ham United striker who scored 19 goals in all competitions last season, is also a

major injury worry for the match.

Injury has also ruled out defensive prospect Giorgio Scalvini and Italian midfielder Marco Brescianini from the match.

Despite dealing with a deluge of injury concerns this season, Atalanta has so far managed to adapt admirably to the

challenges of Europe. The Italians began their Champions League campaign with a goalless draw against Arsenal, the

front-runners for the Premier League title, and went on to defeat Shakhtar Donetsk 3-0 in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.

After eight games, they have four wins, one tie, and three losses, placing them sixth in the Serie A standings. They are

the highest scoring club in the division with 18 goals thus far, and Mateo Retegui, who is leading the goal scoring

charts with eight goals in eight games since joining from Genoa, has contributed significantly to that total.