da prosport bet： If Rangers ever needed a win against Celtic it is right now. Currently 11 points behind the reigning Scottish Premiership champions in the league table, the Light Blues are again struggling to keep pace with Brendan Rodgers’ side.
da brwin： Even when looking more vulnerable this season than last, the Hoops have surged ahead at the top and victory against their visitors on Saturday would surely end all hope of Rangers closing the points gap in the second half of the season.
All hope is not lost yet however. If Rangers can muster what it takes to defeat their arch rivals in the derby on Saturday and the top-flight heads into the Scottish winter break with an entirely different complexion to it.
Not only would it give Aberdeen renewed purpose, potentially finding themselves just five points behind with plenty of football left to play, but it would cut Celtic’s lead over Rangers into single figures, a far more manageable obstacle for Graeme Murty’s men.
Celtic are on the brink of securing another league title before the new year is here, their seventh league title in a row. This is again Rangers’ last chance saloon, the only opportunity they’ll get to bruise the green machine.
How do they go about defeating a team that has been almost unbeatable for over 18 months?
Celtic have had a long tumultuous December, already dropping five points and losing a European game in a month that has seen them play eight matches already with another energy sapping 90 minutes set to come on Saturday before the break allows them to recharge.
There are few teams around Europe who have played the 37 matches that the Hoops have racked up so far since the start of July, almost a full season’s worth by most other standards.
Rangers must capitalise on that potential tiredness with a high tempo, high pressing game. It needs to be physical within the laws of the game, the kind of display that saw the Light Blues themselves defeated against Motherwell in the League Cup semi-final, or that saw the Hoops blown away by Hearts at Tynecastle.
Celtic may be sitting atop Scottish football but they are at their most vulnerable on Saturday as they have ever been under Brendan Rodgers. It would be silly not to make them favourites, but in order to get something out of the match, Murty’s side must have belief in themselves and their ability to finally win one of these matches.
The Murty factor is an interesting one, since the only time Rangers have gotten close to Rodgers’ outfit is when he took interim charge of the Light Blues in the wake of Mark Warburton’s departure back in March.
Celtic huffed and puffed at Celtic Park, looking unconvincing despite holding a lead well into the second half thanks to Stuart Armstrong. However a late Clint Hill effort sent the away support into raptures. It was arguably the most like a cohesive unit Rangers have looked like in all of 2017 and credit has to go to the new Rangers appointee for that draw. While not an important match on Celtic’s march to a treble, it did prevent a whitewash and gave the Ibrox side a small nugget to cling onto.
Under Pedro Caixinha, Rangers looked lost during these derby matches, devoid of any belief or strategy and completely overwhelmed by dominant Celtic performances. It’s time to see whether that draw in March was a one off or whether Murty is a man who knows what it takes to get a result in these high stakes, high pressure matches. The recent double header wing against Aberdeen, while a test below the level of Saturday’s, points to a man who can get the job done in difficult circumstances.
If Celtic turn up and play to the best of their abilities, they will likely win, but that hasn’t happened enough for most fans’ liking so far this season and Rangers need to be ready to capitalise if they are again below par. Failure to do so will see a seventh title fall out of their grasp, do the unthinkable and they’ll take real momentum heading into the new year.
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