Rangers and Celtic clash at Ibrox in the 444th iteration of the Old Firm derby in the first round of Scottish Premiership fixtures of 2025 on Thursday.
It is merely two weeks since Celtic got the better of their Glasgow rivals in the League Cup final on penalties, and the visitors are running away with the Premiership title.
Match preview
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After losing the first Old Firm derby of season 3-0 at Celtic Park, Rangers responded with a fine run of form that saw them sneak slightly closer to Brendan Rodgers's men, and make great progress in Europe.
A big win at Nice, a draw with Tottenham Hotspur and thrashings of Kilmarnock and St Mirren had the Rangers faithful in higher spirits again, even if the title looked unlikely.
They had the chance to make amends for a poor start in the League Cup final, but after losing on penalties, their season has fallen apart once more.
Philippe Clement's men scraped past Dundee a few days later, but since Christmas, they have lost to St Mirren and were fortunate to get a point at Fir Park against Motherwell at the weekend.
Rangers were 2-0 down at the interval, and Jack Butland was very lucky to see his own goal ruled out for a soft foul by the referee, before they were able to rally and draw 2-2.
That did mean the gap between them and Celtic grew even wider though, with the margin now at an almost unassailable 14 points with just half of the season played.
To make matters worse heading into the biggest fixture of the season, the League Cup final defeat means Rangers have now won just one of the last 17 Old Firm derbies.
That will be music to the ears of Celtic, who continued their relatively straightforward surge to the title with a second straight 4-0 win at the weekend.
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St Johnstone were the victims this time, after Celtic also inflicted the same scoreline on Motherwell on Boxing Day, meaning they have now kept 15 clean sheets in 18 Premiership games this season.
It is now well over nine hours of action since Kasper Schmeichel's goal was breached, with Rodgers's backline letting in just four goals so far this season.
With a potent attack that has scored 52 goals too, that also means they remain unbeaten, and have only dropped four points, hitting the half-century mark with Sunday's win.
The depth of their squad will be important in the coming weeks though, because despite having six games before then, all eyes will be on the Champions League clash against Young Boys, after this trip across Glasgow.
Rodgers will have to navigate through five league games in 12 days, and the start of the Scottish Cup before welcoming the Swiss champions to Celtic Park at the end of the month in a must-win encounter.
Team News
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After a poor defensive display at Motherwell, Rangers boss Clement will hope to have Leon Balogun back soon after he picked up an injury at St Mirren on Boxing Day.
Rabbi Matondo did return after a lengthy layoff at the weekend, making a 25-minute cameo, but Tom Lawrence, Neraysho Kasanwirjo and John Souttar remain sidelined for the hosts here.
Hamza Igamane is certain to return to the side after netting both goals in the comeback off the bench at the weekend, and after assisting the second of those two goals, Ridvan Yilmaz will look to make amends for his penalty miss in the cup final.
Celtic full-back Alistair Johnston got over a brief injury scare to start in the win over St Johnstone at the weekend, meaning James Forrest and Odin Thiago Holm are set to be the only players absent here.
Only Sam Dalby has more Premiership goals than Kyogo Furuhashi's eight this season, and the Japanese forward is also the third-highest scorer in the Old Firm this century (also with eight), after Henrik Larsson and Kenny Miller.
Despite having five games in 12 days, rotation will wait as Rodgers is almost certainly going to name his strongest possible XI for this one.
Rangers possible starting lineup:
Butland; Tavernier, Sterling, Balogun, Yilmaz; Diomande, Raskin; Cerny, Bajrami, Hagi; Igamane
Celtic possible starting lineup:
Schmeichel; Johnston, Carter-Vickers, Trusty, Taylor; Paulo Bernardo, McGregor, Hatate; Kuhn, Kyogo, Maeda
We say: Rangers 1-2 Celtic
In front of 50,000 raucous Rangers supporters, it will be no simple ask for Celtic to get the better of their rivals here despite the huge disparity in recent form.
Rangers have not shown the bottle in this fixture in recent years though, and a run of one win in 17 versus Celtic is set to go on.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Andrew Delaney
