Key questions as Celtic host Rangers with title in sight

Celtic vs. Rangers in the Scottish Premiership

When: Sunday, March 16th, 2019 12:30 GMT

Rangers have the opportunity to advance once more to the Scottish Premiership with a victory over Celtic at their fourth meeting of the Glasgow giants this season.

The team under Brendan Rodgers will only be two wins away from glory if they win. After their epic Europa League victory over Fenerbahce on Thursday, Barry Ferguson’s Rangers must re-start in their first derby under interim manager.

As a Rangers player, Barry Ferguson faced Celtic 39 times, many of them as their captain, and he only enjoyed the excitement of the Glasgow Big Two’s fight.

He now prepares to face his fiercest foes in a dugout bow.

And after taking on Fenerbahce and Jose Mourinho in the Europa League, he prepares to battle his wits against the man with the best Old Firm winning ratio in the competition’s history.

No other manager has a higher success rate than Brendan Rodgers, who has only lost two of his 21 games against Rangers.

For then-manager Phillipe Clement, that victory was both heartening and inconvenient. The Belgian won only one game of its own against Celtic, and despite that impressive performance, there was still an 11-point gap in its wake.

Since then, the gap between the two teams has increased to 16 and the River Clyde is still metaphorically connected.

In the League Cup final against Rangers in December, Rodgers also won on penalties.

The chequered flag is almost visible to Celtic. If they win this one, Hearts will need two more victories at home and St. Johnstone.

The departure of Daizen Maeda from Kyogo Furuhashi’s shadows has been a remarkable development for Rodgers.

The forward has 27 goals in 27 games. For context, Kyogo had 34 assists last season, while Maeda had nine this term.

You’d assume there won’t be any more.

Given that Kyogo helped them score eight goals while playing for Rangers at Parkhead, Celtic have only hardly missed him, and Maeda is one of the reasons.

Ferguson resisted stating that he could not possibly go that far into the future when questioned about the possibility of facing Athletic Bilbao in the Europa League quarter-finals.

The interim Rangers manager acknowledged that getting enough players out of the team that was stricken on Thursday was his top priority.

The Ibrox side felt physically the day of the see-saw shoot-out, but it was also a mentally exhausting evening with Ferguson still performing post-match media duties just before midnight.

If they want to take on a Celtic side that has had a full week to prepare, this will be a major test of their recovery ability.

Although Cyriel Dessers and Mohamed Diomande were both forced to miss well before the game on Thursday, Rangers’ most significant game of the week was Fenerbahce.

Regardless of how much is at stake in the larger picture, this Celtic-Rangers game is still significant to supporters of both teams.

Since Conor Goldson’s double saw Rangers record back-to-back wins at Parkhead in 2020, it has been a rarity for them to win in the east end of the city.

They will hope that Callum McGregor’s troublesome calf prevents him from participating in this game for a 43rd time after just two of their 20 previous outings, which dates back to 2010.

Ferguson and McGregor both enjoyed these games, and McGregor’s absence would increase the visitors’ chances of outperforming the odds, as they did in Europe.

Celtic can smell the title and are ready for a party with away fans for the first time since 2023, regardless of whether their illustrious captain is present.