This Sunday brings you the first Old Firm derby as the champions Rangers welcomes the in-form Celtic to Ibrox for the fourth round of the Scottish Premiership with kickoff at 14:00.
The gap between the two Scottish giants was huge last term but there is now a feeling that Celtic have closed the gap from last year. The rivals had contrasting starts to the 2021-22 campaign with Rangers opening with a strong 3-0 victory over League Cup winners Livingston, whereas Celtic opened with a disappointing 2-1 defeat to newly promoted Hearts.
Now both sides are on level with six points each in three matches and with both sides currently placed outside the top three in the Premiership standings, defeat for either side would leave them further off the title race.
In the build-up to the derby both sides were involved in midweek European action with neither side impressing as Rangers were held to a 0-0 draw with a limited, ten-men Armenian outfit Alashkert while Celtic had to withstand constant pressure from AZ Alkmaar with the match ending 2-1 win for the Dutch side. However, both Rangers and Celtic qualified to the Europa League group stage on aggregates.
Rangers will be entering the Sunday’s clash as underdogs because of the outbreaks at the Ibrox as it is reported that some players and manager Steven Gerrard are isolating which might have an impact on the squad that the former Liverpool Captain will have to put out there. Also, Gerrard’s side have recently underperformed on a match-by-match basis, however, on the plus side rangers have kept three clean sheets in their last four matches across all competitions.
On the hand Celtic will head into match as the favorites and they will fancy their chances here with the fans loving Ange Postecoglou’s style of play as his side has recorded a winning streak of six matches prior to the 2-1 loss to AZ. In that run Celtic managed to keep four clean sheets with two matches ending in 6-0 for Ange’s side. Therefore, we expect goals for Celtic due to their new all-attack style. However, their defense still looks shaky and with Rangers having talents like Ryan Kent we might see goals both ends.
Kyogo Furuhashi has continued to impress since his arrival to the Celtic Park and his goal against AZ marked the seventh for the Japanese sensation in eight appearances. Thus, we expect Kyogo to cause Rangers plenty of trouble.
Rangers vs Celtic head to head
Both sides have met in 100 encounters since 1996 with Celtic being the better side with 45 victories while Rangers have 37 victories and there have been 18 draws.
- Rangers 4-1 Celtic 02/05/21
- Rangers 2-0 Celtic 18/04/21
- Celtic 1-1 Rangers 21/03/21
- Rangers 1-0 Celtic 02/01/21
- Celtic 0-2 Rangers 17/10/20
Home
- Alashkert 0-0 Rangers
- Ross County 2-4 Rangers
- Rangers 1-0 Alashkert
- Rangers 5-0 Dunfermline
- Rangers 1-2 Malmo
Away
- Alkmaar 2-1 Celtic
- Celtic 6-0 St. Mirren
- Celtic 2-0 Alkmaar
- Celtic 3-2 Hearts
- Celtic 3-0 Jablonec
Rangers team news
Gary McAllister hinted that the players who missed the Europa League fixture on Thursday will be available at the weekend.
Celtic team news
Greg Taylor is the only concern for the Postecoglou side.
Prediction and odds
- Celtic win
- Both sides to score
- Kyogo Furuhashi to score
