Feyenoord vs Celtic online streaming, predictions & Head to Head

Two domestic champions begin their Champions League journey at De Kuip in Rotterdam as Eredivisie winners Feyenoord take on Scottish giants Celtic in the Group E opener.

Key Takeaways

• Feyenoord have scored 17 goals in their last 3 matches
• Both sides have made unbeaten starts to their league defenses
• The sides have met only once before, back in 1970 and that was a very historical result

Both sides are in blistering form and will be full of confidence heading into this opening fixture, they will know that their side can score goals and neither side will be going into this game sheepishly.

Feyenoord Form

Starting the new season as defending champions means everyone is out to cause an upset once the new season begins, Feyenoord have taken up the challenge with great aplomb. Although they sit in 4th position after five games, they have managed to find the net a whopping 19 times in that time frame and are currently unbeaten.

After a 1-0 defeat to PSV Eindhoven in the Johan Cruijff shield, Feyenoord drew 0-0 against Fortuna Sittard and finished the game with 10-men thanks to Bart Nieuwkoop’s 25-minute dismissal.

Another draw followed, this time 2-2 with Sparta Rotterdam with goals from Santiago Gimenez and Leo Sauer overcoming Charles-Andreas Brym’s brace either side of the break.

Feyenoord then finally got onto their hot streak – beating Almere 6-1 with Gimenez getting a brace, and Feyenoord managing to find 18 shots on target, a rare moment where Almere goalkeeper Nordin Bakker could be forgiven for letting in six as he made 12 saves in the game.

Goals continued to flow freely, Utrecht were then seen off 5-1, another brace from Gimenez and the newly-arrived winger Calvin Stengs opened up his account for Feyenoord. 5-1 was apparently just not good enough, and so they then repeated their seven-goal scoreline once more, a 6-1 victory over Heerenveen with 6 individual goal scorers, and yes, Gimenez was one of them.

Celtic Form

Celtic began their own title defence, something that they are of course very much used to doing, against Ross County, they saw off the Staggies 4-2 in front of a home crowd, despite a late rallying cry following James Brown’s 95th-minute consolation goal for County.

A 3-1 victory over Aberdeen rooted them to the top spot in the division, but then a surprise goal from Kilmarnock’s Marley Watkins meant that Celtic’s hope of a quadruple or triple were dashed as they were knocked out of the Scottish League Cup 1-0.

They were still licking their wounds as they then faced St. Johnstone who held them to a goalless draw, but they found their form once again, seeing off their greatest rivals Rangers a goal to nil.

Saturday evening saw Celtic beat Dundee 3-0 in front of a home crowd, this game saw a goal from Japanese international Kyogo Furuhashi, who can now boast 4 goals from his first 5 league appearances this season.

Head-to-Head

The only previous result between the two sides was in the 1970 European Cup final, when Feyenoord defeated Celtic 1-0, thus becoming the first Dutch side to claim the premier trophy of European football.

Team News

Both sides are plagued with injuries, Celtic are without Leil Abada, Maik Nawrocki, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Marco Tilio and Stephen Welsh with a whole host of injuries. Feyenoord welcome the Scots without Bart Nieuwkoop, Ayase Ueda, Antoni Milambo, Patrik Walemark and Justin Bijlow who also have a variety of injuries to contend with.

Key Players

When looking for their most influential players of late, the most obvious place to look is at their in form strikers. Celtics Kyogo Furuhashi has been in fine form in the league, and leads Celtics scoring charts. Argentinian born Mexican striker Santiago Gimenez is in the same position for Feyenoord and both strikers will have desires to get the Champions league accounts open as quickly as possible.

Final Thoughts

This is a difficult fixture to predict the outcome of, both sides are used to winning as is evident from their league form. Looking at the quality of both of these teams, you would be hard pressed to find a firm favourite between them this could be a very exciting game for the neutrals, as I would expect quite a few goals to be scored in this fixture.