27 min: Fast attack down the let by Valencia. Lato pulls the ball back dangerously from the byline. Boyata clears.
26 min: Toljan gets the game’s second booking, for tugging back an opponent after Celtic gifted possession away with an errant pass.
25 min: Coquelin, who has just come on, clutches his ankle after making a pass. Has he picked up an injury, too? The best way to find out is to run at him like billy-o.
23 min: You’ll never guess who’s just picked up the first booking of the match? It was for chopping down Guedes near half-way. Aye, it was Scott Brown.
Valencia substitution: Coquelin on, Garay off. It seems that Garay did himself a mischief while blocking that shot by Burke and he can’t continue. Coquelin comes on and goes to centreback,not his preferred positions. Something for celtic to exploit?
20 min: Guedes charges past Toljan down the left and lobs over a cross. A touch too long for the man coming in at the back post.
18 min: A pass from deep gives Burke a chance to race forward from half-way. Garay strains to keep pace with him … and then blocks the youngster’s shot when they reach the box.
16 min: Hayes marauds forward down the left again. This time Valencia stop him from getting in a cross but his rampaging positivity is proving quite a pain to the hosts, and the main source of hope for Celtic so far.
14 min: Valencia aren’t going out of their way to attack: rather they’re happy to protect their lead and wait to pounce on any mistakes by Celtic. And the first one duly arrives, as Boyata’s slack pass from the back is intercepted. Luckily for him, Sobirno over-hit a cross from the right after scampering into the box.
12 min: The home fans get a sing-song going in an attempt to drown out the Celtic hordes. Similarly, the home team are trying to get on to the front foot after being penned back deep by Celtic for most of the game so far. But Celtic look compact and composed when out of possession, so far.
9 min: Hayes is having a stormer so far down the left. His latest run results in a corner. Christie’s outswinging delivery is good. Ajer catches it on the volley from 10 yards. It rebounds back to him off a defender and this time he smashes his shot way wide.
7 min: Celtic continue to have most possession and are making Valencia work feverishly to close down any openings.
5 min: More good stuff by Celtic. They force Valencia backwards with some very tidy, purposeful passing. Toljan’s eventual cross from the right comes to nothing but the visitors can take encouragement from a bright start.
3 min: Promising move by Celtic! Brown began it in his own half before Christie released Hayes down the left. Hayes flew into the box and banged in a dangerous low cross/shot. The keeper gets down to hold well.
Jonathan Hayes of Celtic has a shot on goal. Photograph: Kieran McManus/BPI/Rex/Shutterstock
Updated
2 min: Burke shows that “Searing pace” that Rodgers mentioned, hurtling past Diakhaby down the right. But he overran the ball, pulling it back towards the centre after it had crossed the byline.
Valencia are wearing all white. Celtic are sporting their fluorescent lime green away kit with black patches: it’s a mess, to be fair.
The teams have arrived on the pitch, where they receive a lusty greeting from the spectators: there are plenty of empty seats but lots of noise, thanks notably to thousands of crooning away fans.
Brendan Rodgers’ pre-match thoughts
Regarding his team selection, notably the back three, he explains: “[Valencia] keep two strikers up even when they’re defending and they have pace. So our [back] three give us a chance to control that. It also gives us bodies between the lines … and still allows you width in the game to open them up … yet compact when we haven’t got the ball. Hopefully it’ll work for us.”
He explains that Burke has been given the nod up front because of his “searing pace” so “that gives us an out ball, which is important … and if we need to change it, we’ve got quality on the bench.”
Teams
Valencia: Neto; Wass, Garay, Diakhaby, Lato; Torres, Soler, Parejo, Guedes; Sobrino, Mina
Subs: Domenech, Gameiro, Cheryshev, Gaya, Lee, Coquelin, Cenetelles
Celtic: Bain; Toljan, Boyata, Ajer, Simunovic, Hayes; Forrest, Brown, McGregor, Christie; Burke
Subs: Gordon, Izaguirre, Sinclair, Edouard, Lustig, Weah, Johnston
Referee: D Aytekin (Ger)
Preamble
Hello. You join us with Celtic on the verge of a historic achievement … or routine elimination from the Europa League. Having lost last week’s home leg 2-0, Brendan Rodgers’ team need to win handsomely in Spain, where they’ve won exactly zero of their previous 15 matches. Coincidentally, 15 is also the number of times that Valencia have gone into the second leg of a European tie with a lead – and they have lost that lead exactly zero times. So yes, Celtic have a mighty challenge on their hands.
But Rodgers says that if they can nick the first goal and cut out the elementary mistakes that caused last week’s defeat, then something special could be on the cards. Those are two whopping big “ifs” but this potential triumph wouldn’t be worth getting excited about if Celtic were starting from an easy place. As things stand, this is a must-follow. At least for a while.