If Philippe Clement needed any material to show his Rangers team as they prepare to walk into Celtic Park, Sergio Porrini and the class of 1999 have just provided it.
The Belgian manager is tasked with motivating his team to walk into the ‘Lion’s Den’ in little over a week’s time in what could prove a Scottish Premiership title decider.
Rangers’ late season slip in an unconvincing five-game run has handed Celtic the title ascendency and realistically the club has to take all three points at Parkhead to rescue the league campaign.
It’s not an insurmountable task but Big Phil could certainly use all the help he can get.
Now, the RangersTV media team have just announced the timely release of a special film covering the title-winning Celtic Park victory back in 1999.
And if Philippe Clement wants his team to get an idea of the mindset it will take to overcome our Old Firm rivals, the Rangers manager will be gathering his players at Auchenhowie and pressing play on One Night in May next week.
If it doesn’t get his charges riled up to overcome Celtic, then they don’t deserve to wear the jersey.
Rangers can call on Celtic Park spirit of ‘99
Rangers have brought together several of that famous team who beat Celtic 3-0 at Parkhead to lift the Scottish league title under Dick Advocaat in 1999.
The Gers walked into a packed Parkhead and sent the Celtic support into meltdown, hammering our Old Firm rivals courtesy of a Neil McCann double and a Jorg Albertz penalty.
Celtic defender Stephane Mahe saw red, sparking ugly scenes where Hugh Dallas was assaulted with a missile from the crowd, before both Rod Wallace and Vidar Riseth were also sent packing.
Whilst it’s impossible that this could be repeated next weekend – at least from a Rangers POV – justifiably there’s a feeling that a victory at Parkhead will swing the title pendulum back towards Ibrox.
The likes of Neil McCann, Lorenzo Amoruso, Jonatan Johansson and Sergio Porrini have all been speaking to RangersTV as part of the new documentary release.
Some comments from the Italian right-back have also turned heads with Rangers looking to defeat their Old Firm rivals away from home for the first time since Nikola Katic’s headed winner in 2019.
Sergio Porrini: ‘We didn’t care about Celtic fans’
It may well have been a different era at Rangers but this latest Ibrox team are regularly accused of cowering under the pressure of beating Celtic.
Accusations of a mental block – especially ever since Steven Gerrard left the club – have not been helped by an inability to overcome our rivals in three Old Firm games this season.
Self-belief and confidence will be crucial in beating Celtic, especially given their won’t be an away fan in the ground for (hopefully) the final time in this fixture.
Sergio Porrini knows all about overcoming a raucous Celtic Park and the ex-Juventus star’s comments about ignoring the noise may well serve as inspiration.
”The other supporters could do whatever they want,” said Porrini. “We didn’t care.
“If you are confident in what you are doing then you don’t even care about them.”
Neil McCann echoed Sergio Porrini in earlier comments: “I remember the lead-up to that week understanding totally that we could go to Celtic Park and win the league.
“And that actually became a ‘we will be going to win the league’. It never became a question of ‘we could’, it was like ‘we’re going to win the league at Celtic Park’.”
Lorenzo Amoruso – who captained Rangers that day – also claimed that the team were fully focused on delivering for the club.
“Everyone was honestly quiet, relaxed, concentrated,” said Lorenzo. “Thinking about what to do on the field.”
This is the contempt with which the current Rangers team should be showing Celtic as they walk into Parkhead in eight day’s time.
Before then, there is a huge Scottish Premiership fixture card to play with the Gers at home to Kilmarnock and Celtic at home to Hearts.
But whatever happens this weekend, next week is going to be huge and Philippe Clement can call on the spirit of ‘99 to inspire this Rangers team to make history.
Oh and if you want any more parallels, that Celtic Park victory helped Rangers to go on and lift a treble.
