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Aston Villa hero names five Celtic players who could walk into Unai Emery's squad
Stiliyan Petrov has named five players who wouldn't look out of place in the Aston Villa squad. The Scottish champions face Villa in the Champions League in late January and there could be plenty riding on the clash as it's the final fixture of the league phase of the elite competition.
Petrov, who played for both Celtic and Villa in his career, is confident the Hoops will compete well with Unai Emery's side after listing a number of stars who would cut it at the top of the Premier League.
Speaking to Football365, Petrov said: “You’ve got Alistair Johnston. You’ve got Callum McGregor, who is an incredible midfielder. “[Daizen] Maeda, not many teams would turn down his energy, the way he plays. Kyogo [Furuhashi], the way he plays, he is very positive in his movement.
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“[Reo] Hatate, he is really maturing, he’s getting stronger and stronger, scoring and creating goals, he is a box-to-box midfielder and you don’t see many midfielders like that at the moment. Many of those players can be in that [Villa] team.
“I am looking forward to that game because there are two great managers, two attacking teams and I think it will be a cracking game because there is a lot of space to be exploited, a lot of speed, a lot of good technical players. I’m looking forward to that game."
Villa won their first three Champions League fixtures against BSC Young Boys, Bayern Munich and Bologna, but fell to a bizarre 1-0 defeat at Club Brugge earlier this month. Tyrone Mings picked the ball up in the penalty box unaware that Emi Martinez had taken a goal kick, before Hans Vanaken scored the resulting penalty.
Celtic have also made a strong start in the Champions League after beating Slovan Bratislava and RB Leipzig last time out, while they drew 0-0 at Atalanta. Brendan Rodgers' side were however on the end of a 7-1 defeat to Borussia Dortmund in October.
