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RB Leipzig v Celtic: Champions League – live

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Key events

Liel Abada: The Celtic winger is not in tonight’s squad as he is sitting this game out for religious reasons. The group F match coincides with Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar and Ange Postecoglou left it up to the player to decide whether or not he wanted to participate in the game.

Celtic winger Liel Abada misses out on tonight’s game for religious reasons
Liel Abada misses out on tonight’s game for religious reasons. Photograph: Robert Perry/PA
Christopher Nkunku celebrates
Chelsea target Christopher Nkunku lines up for RB Leipzig tonight. Photograph: Martin Rose/Getty Images

Those teams: With the absence of Cameron Carter-Vickers confirmed, Ange Postecoglu names the same side that lined up against and beat Motherwell at the weekend, which means a Champions League debut for 22-year-old central defender Stephen Welsh.

RB Leipzig manager Marco Rose makes one change to the team that beat Bochum 4-0 on Saturday. David Raum comes in at left-back for Marcel Halstenberg, who drops to the bench. Former Chelsea striker Timo Werner lines up for the hosts, alongside Christopher Nkunku, who is being heavily linked with a move to Stamford Bridge.

RB Leipzig v Celtic line-ups

RB Leipzig: Gulacsi, Simakan, Orban, Gvardiol, Raum, Schlager, Kampl, Szoboszlai, Nkunku, Werner, Andre Silva.

Subs: Haidara, Poulsen, Forsberg, Blaswich, Halstenberg, Diallo, Novoa, Henrichs.

Celtic: Hart, Juranovic, Welsh, Jenz, Taylor, O’Riley, McGregor, Hatate, Maeda, Furuhashi, Jota.

Subs: Giakoumakis, Haksabanovic, McCarthy, Bernabei, Abildgaard, Bain, Siegrist, Robertson, Forrest, Ralston.

Tonight’s match officials

  • Referee: Espen Eskas

  • Referee’s assistants: Jan Erik Engan and Isaak Elias Bashevkin

  • Fourth official: Svein Oddvar Moen

  • Video Assistant Referee: Tomasz Kwiatkowski

Norwegian referee Espen Eskas is in charge of maintaining order during tonight's match at the Red Bull Arena.
Norwegian referee Espen Eskas gets a trademark earful from Bruno Fernandes during a summer friendly between Manchester United and Atletico Madrid. Photograph: Stian Lysberg Solum/NTB/AFP/Getty Images

Early team news

Leipzig mifielder Konrad Laimer is out with an ankle injury, along with centre-back Lukas Klostermann. Midfielder Dani Olmo is also sidelined with an injury that has kept him out for over a month.

Visibly frustrated by his side’s profligacy in front of goal in their previous two Champions League encounters, Ange Postecoglou has been forced to plan for this game without striker Georgios Giokoumakis, who suffered a leg injury while on international duty with Greece. Swedish defender Carl Starfelt is also out as he recovers from the knee injury that forced him off the pitch in the first Old Firm derby of the season. James McCarthy and Cameron Carter-Vickers are also major doubts for tonight’s game.

Ange Postecoglou speaks to the press ahead of Celtic's match against RB Leipzig
Ange Postecoglou, who has been linked with the vacant manager’s job at Wolves, addresses the press yesterday. Photograph: Ronny Hartmann/AFP/Getty Images

Group F: RB Leipzig v Celtic

The Red Bull Arena is the venue for tonight’s meeting between third and fourth in Group F. With a point on the board already following their draw against Shakhtar Donetsk in Poland, Celtic are in slightly better shape than their hosts, who have lost both their group games, against the Ukrainian saide and Real Madrid, so far. Kick-off in Saxony is at 5.45pm (BST) but stay tuned in the meantime for team news and build-up.

source: theguardian.com