Celtic and Rangers meet at Celtic Park on Sunday for the first Old Firm derby of the Scottish Premiership season, a fixture whose backdrop has shifted dramatically since the sides last faced each other.
The champions go into the game reeling from two heavy defeats. Rangers won the Premier Sports Cup quarter-final between the clubs 3-0 at Ibrox last weekend, and Celtic then opened their Europa League campaign with a 3-1 loss to Ferencvaros. Pressure is intensifying on Martin O’Neill as a result, yet the league table offers his side a significant prize: a win on Sunday would move Celtic eight points clear of their rivals, while a third defeat in a row would leave Rangers just two points adrift.
O’Neill struck a defiant note about his team’s readiness and their position in the league. “We’re ready to go, we really are,” he said. “We’re getting prepared for the game. It was a difficult game last Sunday and difficult last night, but we’re ready to go.”
He added: “Confidence, we’re far from rock-bottom. We’re still in the lead in the league. If we can win this, we can extend the lead. If we don’t, going into the international break, we’re still going to be in front. It’s not the thing that you would look forward to going into an international break on three successive defeats, if that’s the case. We’ve got to be a bit more inventive but the crowd will be up for this. The players are capable of turning it around.”
There were questions over whether Celtic’s recent signings fully grasped the occasion during the loss at Ibrox, with a number of new arrivals struggling to make an impact in high-profile games. O’Neill suggested that experience would serve them well going forward. “It will probably take a little bit more time, but I think anybody who experienced last Sunday, to know what it’s all about, it shouldn’t need many more lessons,” he explained.
Momentum appears to sit with Rangers, who have now won five successive matches, keeping four clean sheets in the process. Manager Derek McInnes played down the absence of away fans as “overhyped” but acknowledged how quickly the narrative can turn in the Glasgow rivalry. “I think you’re constantly aware of that at a club like Rangers,” he said. “You’re only one bad result away from getting a belt in the mouth again. You’ve got to try and keep those to a minimum, as much as you can. We’ve worked hard to get to where we are at the minute but equally, you’ve got to remind yourself, it wasn’t so long ago that we were in a tough spot. We had a big result last week and a big performance but we want to try and deliver that again on Sunday. I don’t think we can win the game without that. Don’t think that we can just turn up and everything’s going to become easy for you. You’ve got to work for everything you get. We’ll need that a bit more, to be honest.”
On the team front, O’Neill confirmed that Celtic will have to assess one or two players who came off during the defeat to Ferencvaros. Yang Hyun-Jun remains on international duty with South Korea, and the manager was non-committal as to whether he may adopt a change in shape to accommodate Kasper Hogh and Camilo Duran up front. Alistair Johnston and Callum Osmand remain sidelined with injury.
Rangers may be without striker Ryan Naderi, who suffered an ankle injury in the win over Celtic following a challenge from Mika Baur. The club has contacted Scottish FA head of refereeing Willie Collum to ask why no further punishment was administered. One unnamed player is also a doubt for the visitors, while left-back Tuur Roomens has returned to training after injury.
The recent history of the fixture, and the wider form of both sides, adds further texture to Sunday’s meeting. Celtic’s 3-1 win over Rangers in May ended a six-game winless run in league Old Firm derbies, and the Hoops have won six of their past eight home games against Rangers in the Scottish Premiership. After their 3-0 victory in the League Cup last weekend, McInnes could become only the second Rangers manager to win both of his first two Old Firm derbies, after Graeme Souness in 1986.
Celtic are looking to win 14 or more consecutive league matches for the first time since March 2017, when a run of 22 under Brendan Rodgers ended with a 1-1 home draw against Rangers. Rangers, meanwhile, have scored seven goals from 128 shots in the Premiership this season, a conversion rate of 5.5% that is the lowest in the division. Five of Celtic’s six home league goals this season have come in the first half of matches, with their only second-half strike at Celtic Park coming from Benjamin Nygren against Dundee on matchday one. Rangers have also used more players (26) and made the joint-most starting XI changes (18) of any side in the top flight.