Rangers and Celtic team news for the first Old Firm derby of the season has been confirmed.
Rangers and Celtic team lines for the first Old Firm of the Premiership season have been confirmed - with some major hints.
Nico Raskin has been entirely omitted from the Light Blues side amid links to Wolves and Crystal Palace this weekend in a fresh hint over his Ibrox status. Celtic’s Adam Idah meanwhile is in limbo as the champions hunt a striker to allow him a move to Swansea City, and he’s left OUT of the matchday squad, suggesting a move to South Wales is close to completion Celtic. Transfer deadline day is on Monday.
Both clubs field new signings straight from the off. Bojan Miovski is through the middle for Rangers after arriving from La Liga side Girona over the weekend, while new £4.5 million signing Michel-Ange Balikwisha starts for the first time in Hoops. On loan Boca Juniors left back Marcello Saracchi is named on the bench.
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Russell Martin on Rangers vs Celtic
There is anger on both sides heading into this one. The Celtic board have been getting it in the neck for slow recruitment that proved a hammer blow as they were knocked out the Champions League in pitiful fashion versus Kairat Almaty midweek, losing on penalties after a 0-0 draw over two legs. It’s just as fiery at Ibrox, with calls for head coach Russell Martin to depart just a few months into his tenure, following a 9-1 aggregate embarrassment in their play-off clash versus Club Brugge. They lost the second leg 6-0 on Wednesday.
They are also three wins out of 10 under the former defender and defeat here could see Celtic go nine points ahead of Rangers after just four games. Martin said: “It is all about Sunday, who handles the occasion best, who has done their work, who is prepared, and we have to make sure we focus on ourselves and that we are ready for that.
“There’s no better game to win than this game, it means so much to everyone. It is one of the biggest games in the world and I mean that in terms of interests and how much it means to the people involved.”
Brendan Rodgers on Rangers vs Celtic
Hoops boss Rodgers said of the clash at Ibrox: “A game against Rangers is always a game that every Celtic supporter around the world will want to see their team win, so there’s no greater game to come back to after that to then go and play.
“Domestically, we’ve made a good start. It’s a shame the two nil-nil draws have put a real dampener on it, but we go into this game and we want to continue that good form. I always expect a tough game when we play against Rangers.
“We’ve won most of our games against Rangers because we’ve played well, we’ve focused on performance and not getting too caught up in the whole hype of it all,” he explained. Playing without fear, and playing the level of football that’s expected here at Celtic. When we’ve done that in the majority of my time here, we’ve played well and won the games. Domestically, we’ve started well in terms of performance and result, and I always feel, especially with adding to the squad, that we’ll get better, so that starts on Sunday."
Rangers vs Celtic confirmed starting line ups
RANGERS XI: Butland; Tavernier, Djiga, Souttar, Meghoma, Barron, Diomande, Aasgaard, Moore, Gassama, Miovski.
SUBS: Kelly, Aarons, Rothwell, Dessers, Bajrami, Antman, Fernandez, Curtis, Danilo.
CELTIC XI: Schmeichel; Ralston, Carter-Vickers, Scales, Tierney; McGregor, Hatate, Engels; Balikwisha, Nygren Maeda, Nygren.
SUBS: Sinisalo, Yang, McCowan, Yamada, Bernardo, Saracchi, Murray, Forrest, Donovan.
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