It’s time for Celtic and Rangers to renew one of football’s most intense rivalries.
Celtic have dominated Rangers for a long time and will be looking to maintain their foot on their rivals’ throats when they face off at Ibrox on Thursday.
Whether it’s Ange Postecoglou in the dugout, Brendan Rodgers returning, the champions scoring first, Rangers playing well or scoring first, or the Bhoys appearing out of sync, the end outcome is always the same: Celtic wins.
That was demonstrated by Celtic’s spectacular penalty shootout victory over Rangers in the League Cup final at Hampden last month.
Before and after that game, Rangers fans were in cloud cuckoo land, believing that there was still a possibility to narrow the Premiership gap.
But fast forward to the present and reality, and Celtic are 14 points ahead of Rangers, with Rodgers and Co. delivering solid results during the festive season, while Philippe Clement’s side embarrasses themselves once more.
Kris Boyd claims Rangers fans will go ‘nasty’ at Ibrox if Celtic score first
Daizen Maeda scored just 20 seconds at Ibrox in April, and after his heroics in the League Cup final, he’ll be eager to add to that total.
Kris Boyd is bracing for the worst heading into the match, declaring that the ‘league is over’ regardless of what occurs.
The former striker even warned that if Celtic score first, Ibrox will turn ‘ugly’ because there are already a lot of ‘mad’ Rangers fans even before a ball is kicked, as reported by Sky Sports News (01/01/25 @ 10:20 am).
“There is a lot of negativity,” Boyd explained. “There were some enquiries asked a few weeks ago. If you look at it today, they plainly lost at St Mirren and drew with Motherwell. The team has undergone adjustments. Rangers have a lot of hostility heading into this Celtic encounter.
“If Celtic travel to Ibrox, and some bookmakers have them as odds-on favourites, that very much sums up where both teams are. Celtic will play at Ibrox in the league’s second Glasgow derby of the season. Rangers have not fared well. You have the sensation that if this continues. Well, it can go on.
“Depending on what happens, I believe there will be a large number of angry Rangers fans at Ibrox.” If Celtic starts well and scores the first goal, there will be 51,000 Rangers fans in the stadium, and things might get ugly – even if Rangers wins, Celtic will be 11 points ahead. “The league is over.”
Why are there no away supporters inside Ibrox for Celtic’s visit to Rangers?
As Rodgers perfectly stated in August, ‘it’s a Rangers thing’. Rangers broke with the long-standing tradition of allowing 7,500 Celtic fans into Ibrox in 2018, according to BBC Sport.
So, understandably, Celtic followed suit, and Rodgers, who returned to the club last summer, made his sentiments known at the start of the season.
“Celtic have played their part in what they were asked to do,” remarked Brendan Rodgers.
“When you think back to when this all started, it had nothing to do with Celtic.
“Celtic get drawn into this as a Celtic-Rangers issue. This is a Rangers-related issue, not a Celtics issue. “When asked to have this arrangement, to make the stadium safe, we put money into it, which began months ago.
That has not been agreed upon by both parties, therefore it is not complicated and has not been completed.”
Leave a Reply