Leicester City striker Leonardo Ulloa. (Photo : Getty Images)
Scottish Premiership squad Celtic FC will face reigning English Premier League champions Leicester City FC in the opening game of the North America and Europe leg of the 2016 International Champions Cup on Saturday, July 23 at the Celtic Park in Glasgow.
Celtic, currently coached by former Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers, has already started playing competitively, having pulled off a 3-1 aggregate victory over Gibraltar Premier Division champs Lincoln Red Imps in the ongoing 2016-2017 UEFA Champions League second qualifying round matches.
Their most recent fixture ended with a 3-0 crushing of Lincoln also at their home ground of Celtic Park on Wednesday, as per BBC Sport. Goals from Mikael Lustig, Leigh Griffiths and Patrick Roberts completed the Bhoys' three-goal haul to advance in the third round against Kazakhstan club Astana.
Rodgers' boys are in for a challenging ICC this year as they face Barcelona and Inter Milan next, which would be a big boost for their confidence when competing in the Champions League.
Meanwhile, the English top flight champions began their preseason campaign with a come-from-behind 2-1 win over Football League One squad Oxford United at the Kassam Stadium on Tuesday, via Sports Mole.
Head coach Claudio Ranieri used 22 players during the match to test his second-choice squad. Oxford's Chris Maguire netted the opener at the 14th, but Demarai Gray and Jeffrey Schlupp hit a goal apiece afterward to secure the victory for the Foxes.
Newly-signed players this summer, Ron-Robert Zieler, Luis Hernandez, and Ahmed Musa, were all fielded in by Ranieri as he tries to familiarize them to the existing squad.
Ranieri emphasized the importance of staying away from injury during these friendly matches as the team wants to be at full strength once the new Premier League season starts when they will defend their current title.
"It was important to make a very good session. It was our first friendly match and we won which is good, but it's important that nobody got an injury," said Ranieri.
"The plan was okay. Everybody was involved and everybody understood what our movement, idea and philosophy. I'm very, very pleased with them so far. The players' condition is slowly getting better and now we have three friendly matches in the International Champions Cup," he added.
On the other hand, Rodgers is just satisfied about qualifying to the third round of the Champions League and is intending to use the ICC friendlies as a chance to improve his team's plays on the pitch.
The predicted result is a 3-0 rout for Leicester City.
Celtic starting lineup (4-3-3 formation): Gordon; Lustig, Sviatchenko, Tierney, Brown; Forrest, Armstrong, McGregor; Griffiths, Dembélé, Roberts
Leicester City starting lineup (4-4-2 formation): Schmeichel; Simpson, Wasilewski, Morgan, Chilwell; Mahrez, Gray, Drinkwater, Choudhury; Ulloa, Okazaki
