Livingston vs Celtic Prediction: Bhoys to tame the toothless Lions

Round 31 of the Scottish Premiership season continues with one game on Sunday from West Lothian.

Bottom club Livingston hosts current champions Celtic at noon live on Sky Sports Main Event, and Betfred’s Frank Monkhouse previews the action from Tony Macaroni Arena.

The international break is over, and it’s not a moment too soon for followers of the Scottish Premiership who return to a nail-biting title race.

Celtic watched on as Rangers played Hibs on Saturday at Ibrox, and the Hoops now set their sights on boosting their title chances with an away win in West Lothian.

Will they get the desired result and ramp up the pressure on their Old Firm rivals? Fans certainly hope so after watching their side lose 2-0 at Tynecastle in their last road trip.

Livingston enjoys the home advantage here but knows this could be the last time they host Celtic for a while, with the club edging closer to relegation and playing Championship football next term.

The Lions are stuck to the bottom of the table with just three wins managed from 30 attempts. They have claimed a single point from the last dozen available and were recently beaten 4-2 at Celtic Park in the Scottish Cup quarter-finals.

Match Odds

As has become the norm this season with Livingston, they are the underdogs to win this game despite playing at home.

David Martindale’s side battled to a deserved point at McDiarmid Park against St Johnstone earlier this month before losing that quarter-final to Celtic and suffering a painful 3-0 loss in the capital against Hibs.

Confidence is low in the camp, and with bettors reluctant to trust the toothless Lions, we’re not expecting to see too much attention on the home win.

Fancy Livingston to spring a surprise on Sunday afternoon? You can back the locals at a chunky 12/1, and that price is available on both the website and mobile app.

The draw would be a huge result for Livi, and that’s currently trading at 6/1 - or a 14.3% chance. Celtic are the unsurprising favourites as they aim to pick up back-to-back Premiership wins, but they’ve struggled at this venue on the artificial surface before.

Will the champions stumble again? It’s unlikely with an away win yours at the 2/11 offered.

Celtic -1 handicap @ 3/5

We’re backing a strong Celtic win in West Lothian but fancy a shot at better odds than those available in the match-winner betting.

Therefore, we dive into the specials and take Celtic -1 goal on the handicap, and we’re hopeful of landing that bet without too much fuss. Celtic are involved in a title race, while Livingston is feeling sorry for themselves, down in 12th place. That should show in the final result.

Looking at recent meetings we note Celtic have won all three games against Livingston this season, scoring a combined nine goals and conceding just two. They won 3-0 here in October thanks to strikes from Reo Hatate, Matt O’Riley, and Daizen Maeda, and that was despite having goalkeeper Joe Hart sent off after just 28 minutes.

More of the same on Sunday? We think so.

Kyogo Furuhashi to score first @ 7/2

Sticking with the specials markets, we stray into the anytime scorer betting, taking a chance on Celtic striker Kyogo Furuhashi.

With a dozen goals, he is now his team’s leading scorer. He took his time to catch fire this season but has found the net in his last two games against Livingston and in four of his previous seven outings.

Kyogo has scored in Celtic’s last two games, scoring the final goal of four against Livingston in Glasgow on Scottish Cup duty and the opener when St Johnstone came calling last time.

He’s back approaching full fitness and match sharpness and seems to have that eye for goal that served him so well last season. Back Kyogo to score for the third game on the bounce.

Frank Monkhouse primarily covers Scottish Football for us here at Betfred Insights. You can check out all of his work along with that of the rest of our Football Betting Tips desk on our main Football page.