Rarely has there been such an anti-climactic build up to an Old Firm derby when there is still a chance of it having an impact on the title race – albeit a small one.
Celtic can’t officially win the league at Parkhead this weekend but a nine point lead with a big gap in goal difference would need the collapses to end all collapses for us to retain our title, win and it certainly makes things a little bit more interesting.
Of course, the SPFL could have arranged this fixture for another date rather than between our two Europa League semi-final ties with RB Leipzig, however, when you consider that a winter break was moved to benefit them, the league’s governing body was hardly going to play fair when the post-split games were announced.
When you factor in our injury list, playing away from home and our priorities, we will be going in – just as we did at Hampden – as heavy underdogs.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst will be in a position that few Rangers managers find themselves in, in that he will be forgiven for rotating his squad and resting a few players ahead of the second leg with the German’s at Ibrox on Thursday night – the chance to qualify for a European final far outweighs the likelihood of Celtic losing at least one and dropping points in another of their last three games, on top of us winning at Parkhead.
Team selection will massively dictate how we will approach the game but the last two derbies has shown that Gio seems to have sussed out a system for Celtic, a win might not achieve anything in the grand scheme of things but bragging rights and ending their unbeaten run would set us up nicely for the bigger fish to come.