EURO 2024 has been a welcome distraction for Celtic supporters to tune into amid a quiet start to the transfer window from their club.
The Bhoys join Hibernian as the only two Scottish Premiership sides yet to announce any new arrivals; nevertheless, plenty of transfer rumours have been doing the rounds.
Brendan Rodgers is in the hunt for a new goalkeeper and Newcastle United stopper Martin Dubravka is in the frame to succeed Joe Hart at Celtic, with the added carrot that he is free to leave the Magpies.
Representing his country in Germany, the 35-year-old played a starring role in their Group E victory over Belgium on Monday, keeping a clean sheet and making five saves en route to Slovakia’s historic triumph.
Yesterday, the veteran was in action once again against Ukraine, so let’s take a look at how he got on in Dusseldorf.
Martin Dubravka’s Slovakia fall to defeat against Ukraine
Dubravka indeed started between the sticks for Slovakia against Ukraine; nevertheless, he couldn’t prevent his side from falling to a 2-1 defeat courtesy of goals from Mykola Shaporenko and Roman Yaremchuk.
Per Sofascore, the Newcastle man made three saves during proceedings, one successful runout, and he hit his intended target with 26 out of 32 passes (81%). On the flip side, Dubravka didn’t manage to accurately land any of his six long balls, though statistics can be slightly misleading on this front.
Speaking live on BBC Sport’s live coverage of the match yesterday, in an example of two worlds potentially colliding, former Celtic stopper Joe Hart had some thoughts on on Dubravka’s position for Yaremchuk’s winning strike yesterday.
He stated: “That’s a great touch, but Dubravka is going to be really, really disappointed with what happens next. Once the ball is brought down, it is 80-20 in his favour. If he stands big or makes a long barrier, but he ends up doing absolutely nothing really. And he actually looks quite worried that the ball could hit him at some point.”
Tournament football is a rollercoaster ride, so it is unfair to judge the man in question too harshly, given his heroics against Belgium earlier this week. What matters is that Dubravka is an established goalkeeper with experience of succeeding at the highest level.
With 30 appearances for Newcastle in 2023/24, he would be a solid replacement for Hart if a deal can be negotiated by all parties.