If Celtic make it through in the Europa League tonight, they will have at least two more Thursday nights to think about, deflecting their focus from the league campaign.
Celtic are in the drivers seat as they face Zenit St Petersburg tonight in their Europa League round of 32 second leg match in Russia.
Should Brendan Rodgers’ men make it through to the round of 16, they will have two more vitally important games to turn their attention to, presenting an opportunity for Rangers to potentially further bridge the gap between the Glasgow rivals.
Rangers have done fantastically well over the last two league games to claw their way back towards the standards set by Celtic. Last season, the Gers finished an astounding 39 points behind the Hoops, and were unable to clinch second place, losing out to Aberdeen.
This season Graeme Murty’s men are sitting in second place, just nine points behind league leaders Celtic with 11 games to go, stone wall evidence that the gap is beginning to tighten.
For the Bhoys, the odds were always going to be stacked against them when Rangers returned to the top flight.
Celtic are the standard setters and what the rest of the SPFL aspires to be. Rangers have nothing to lose, and are simply out to chip away at whatever lead has been established by the Celts, as they go about trying to improve enough so that they can present a title challenge and bring home league title number 55.
The onus is on Celtic to keep winning, not Rangers, who can quietly sit in the champions’ slip stream, ready to pick up points whenever the Hoops drop them.
With Celtic’s busy fixture list of midweek European games, Rangers are being presented with frequent opportunities to claw back the deficit.
Taking last weekend as an example, off the back of a 1-0 win against Zenit, arguably the club’s best result of the season, Celtic played out an underwhelming 0-0 draw against league strugglers St Johnstone.
The game was clearly played with the Zenit return leg in mind, and should they make it through tonight, the same issue will be presented in the round of 16.
Celtic’s involvement in the Europa League would see them playing on Sundays rather than Saturdays, meaning Rangers could have the chance to play before their rivals and close the gap, putting the pressure on Brendan Rodgers’ side to restore their lead at the top of the table, which could be a psychological advantage to Murty’s men.
If Celtic draw just two more games, whilst Rangers pick up three points each time, the gap will be close to just five, and the title race is well and truly on.
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