The game kicks-off at 7.30pm and will be shown live on SuperSport 5.
Celtic go into this game with their spirits sky high following their morale boosting 1-0 win over provincial rivals Free State Stars on Sunday from the goal that was taken by Tlou Segolela, while Santos were denied a legitimate goal by referee Harry Lekitlane in their 1-0 loss to Kaizer Chiefs on Friday.
Santos striker Phikolethu Spelman, who joined the People’s Team from Bidvest Wits at the beginning of the season, said they have put behind the disappointment of losing to Chiefs in the hurtful manner they did and their focus is now firmly on the Celtic game away from home.
“We can’t dwell much on what has happened because it’s done and finished but we have to focus on the future which is what we have control of. We are going to Celtic, who always pull massive crowds at home and we are expecting a difficult game,” said the confident Spelman on Tuesday.
Santos and coach Boebie Solomons go into this game sitting third on the log with 27 points from 16 matches where they have managed to score nineteen goals in the process and Spelman is hoping to add to their goals tally on the standings.
“My job here at Santos is to score goals and I feel down when a game finishes without scoring. I want to score more goals and help this club to achieve better things in the league and my immediate attention is on Celtic,” he said.
The high spirits that have encapsulated Spelman come from the fact that he is happy at Santos where all the players have a sense of belonging and they fight for each other during games.
“You can see that we are a close family when we are on the field. Even now, despite our loss against Chiefs last Friday, the spirit among the guys is very good and we just want to go out there and play football,” he said.
Down in Bloemfontein, Celtic are intent on keeping their winning momentum following their weekend’s victory over Stars and according to their skipper Thabo Nthethe they are looking forward to the game and the players want to keep their winning momentum going.
Nthethe said they are fully ware that they are facing a difficult team in Santos but they know exactly what they faced with as they have watched them play on numerous occasions this season already.
Nthethe added that they have managed to establish that the main reason for their slump in form recently, after their commendable start, was as a result of being weak in the defence.
A closer look at the statistics on the PSL standings correlates with Nthethe’s assertion as they have conceded a worrying 18 goals after 16 games thus far in the season and they better be on guard against the likes of Spelman, Eleazar Rodgers, Erwin Isaacs, Graham King and Tyren Arendse who can cause havoc if allowed room to settle down in the game.
“Fortunately we managed to identify our mistakes while reviewing our games on video with the coach and we spent more time at training working on those deficiencies. In some of our games we conceded goals that we should easily defended and that is not good enough at this level,” he said.
The other important factor of their game that Nthethe pointed out as a worry was their shyness in front of goal and he has urged his teammates to be more ruthless when they arrive in the danger area of the opposition.
With Excellent Walaza suspended, the job of finishing off the chances that they create is going to fall on the shoulders of players like Segolela, Sandile Ndlovu, Darrell Smith and tricky Mkhanyiseli Siwahla who will be faced with the likes of Musa Otieno, Wayne Arendse, Ricardo Skippers and Marvin Oakes.
