The title race now taking shape after Celtic’s post-split Scottish Premiership fixtures were announced by the SPFL yesterday.
Celtic now know that they face Rangers on the 11th of May and depending on how the results go from now until then, it could be a fixture that decides the title.
Celtic, clearly, have the advantage heading into the Glasgow Derby. At home with Parkhead packed with Celtic supporters will be a daunting prospect and with Brendan Rodgers unbeaten against our Glasgow rivals, confidence will be high that we can pull off a result.
Andy Walker’s Celtic reminder to Rangers
And it was this train of thought that led to a conversation between Andy Walker and Paul Cooney regarding the outcome of that match.
This is how the conversation went on The Go Radio Football Show:
Cooney: “I think a lot of Celtic fans thought they’ve got the measure of Rangers. That’s maybe a wild claim because they’ve won what, two games?
Walker: “I don’t think it’s wild because when have Rangers taken care of Celtic? When have they beat them when it really mattered?
“I can’t see Rangers going to Celtic Park and winning.”
Like Walker, I cannot see how the Celtic fans thinking that we have Rangers’ card marked is wild by any stretch of the imagination. And I’ll tell you why.
Celtic vs Rangers recent history
Let’s take a decent sample size. In the last twelve Glasgow Derby’s, Rangers have only beaten Celtic twice. Once over 90 minutes in a Scottish Premiership game that meant nothing in terms of the title race and in extra time in the 2022 Scottish Cup semi-final during Ange Postecoglou’s rebuild season.
Out of the rest of those fixtures, three have been drawn and Celtic have won the other eight.
To further compound the argument, Celtic have scored 18 goals and conceded just five in those eight wins. [Transfermarkt]
The Celtic fans have every right to go into the final derby match of the season full of confidence. Especially when we have a manager who has lost just once himself in the twelve Rangers games he has taken charge of.