Glasgow Rangers will be hoping to follow their win at Ibrox last weekend with a positive result against their bitter rivals.
Rangers have one final chance this season to end their wait for a victory against Celtic that stretches back to when the Gers were promoted back to the Scottish Premiership in 2016.
In the early months of the year, it appeared for a while that Rangers were closing the gap to Brendan Rodgers’ side, and the first Old Firm clash of 2018 looked set to confirm that the gap was shrinking as the Gers twice took the lead at Ibrox and saw their opponents reduced to 10 men when the score was 2-2. However, Celtic were the ones to bag the winner in an exhilarating clash.
Unfortunately for Rangers, their most recent meeting was nowhere near as close as they were dismantled by their rivals in the semi-final of the Scottish Cup at Hampden Park.
Since then however, Graeme Murty’s side have got themselves a little momentum having beaten Hearts at Ibrox while Celtic go into the game off the back of a defeat to Hibernian at the weekend.
Largely due to injury, Rangers’ back five seems to pick itself with Jak Alnwick playing behind a back four consisting of James Tavernier, Declan John, Russell Martin and Ross McCrorie – who will be hoping to put his Hampden nightmare behind him.
Meanwhile, Jason Holt may get the chance to keep his place in the middle of the park. He did impress against Hearts and has earned the chance to prove that he can succeed where several of his teammates have struggled in keeping Scott Brown quiet.
The other key decision facing Rangers boss Murty appears to be up front. Jason Cummings scored at the weekend while Alfredo Morelos’ form has left a little to be desired for a while, so it would actually be a surprise if the latter returned to the starting lineup.
With Murty surely needing something special to keep his job, he may perhaps be tempted to spring a couple of selection surprises, so perhaps there is the slightest chance that the likes of Jordan Rossiter, Glenn Middleton and Zak Rudden may be pushing for a place in the 18 after their stunning performances in the development side’s 6-0 win over Leicester this week.
But perhaps it may just be the two changes from the side that lost the semi-final…
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