Celtic will take to the Parkhead pitch under the lights for the first time this season when they face Falkirk in the League Cup on Friday night.

The Premiership champions will be looking to book their place in the quarter-finals, with Premier Sports showing the match live from 7.15pm ahead of a 7.45pm kick-off.

The tie is a repeat of last season’s quarter-final meeting, when Brendan Rodgers’ side were given a real scare by the then-Championship outfit. Falkirk twice led through Ross MacIver and Finn Yeats, either side of a Paulo Bernardo strike, before a second-half brace from Adam Idah turned the game in Celtic’s favour. Nicolas Kuhn then added two more goals late on, with Michael McKenna seeing red for the Bairns.

Now promoted as Championship winners, Falkirk return to Celtic Park as a top-flight side, with manager John McGlynn hoping to spring an upset.

Celtic, however, could rotate their squad with a packed schedule ahead. A gruelling Champions League play-off trip to Kazakhstan is now confirmed, with Livingston at home and a Glasgow derby all squeezed into the next two weeks.

Brendan Rodgers rotated the squad in last year’s meeting, and said this after the match:

”If there’s any blame on the first hour, it’s on me, I make the changes.

“It’s a challenge for the guys coming in and I thought they gave everything. The players show a real hunger to work hard.”

Lloyd Wilson will referee his first Celtic match, assisted by Chris Rae and Graham McNeillie, while John Beaton and David Roome will handle VAR duties.

Falkirk have already shown in recent years that they won’t shy away from a battle against the champions but Celtic will be aiming to avoid any repeat of last year’s early scares and get the job done quickly.