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Sport

01st Jun 2017

Celtic are coming to Dublin to play Shamrock Rovers this summer

No ordinary pre-season fixture.

JOE

Get this date in your diary.

Scotland’s invincible treble-winners are coming to Tallaght on Saturday 8 July to take on Shamrock Rovers in a friendly.

Celtic are hugely popular in Ireland but, speaking at the announcement of the match, Celtic’s Irish manager Brendan Rodgers, said the game was a special fixture for the Glasgow club also.

“Stephen Bradley is a guy I seen as an outstanding young player at Arsenal,” said Rodgers of the Rovers boss. “Damien [Duff] I know well from my Chelsea days. Stephen McPhail came over a couple of months ago to have a look at what we do here at Celtic.”

The match will be Celtic’s final preparation for their Champions League qualifier and, therefore, Rodgers has promised to field the bulk of the team that went undefeated in the league and two cups this season.

“We will have a strong team, we are not sending a Celtic XI or a reserve team. We will be bringing the strongest team we have.”

Shamrock Rovers are currently fifth in the Airtricity League Premier Division.