Celtic v Rangers betting tips: Hoops well placed to steal march in title race
Celtic v Rangers betting tips: Hoops well placed to steal march in title race
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Celtic v Rangers betting tips and odds
The fourth and final Old Firm game of the season in the Scottish Premiership takes place at Parkhead on Sunday in a high noon contest where victory for Celtic, available at 10/11, will almost certainly guarantee them the title.
The Hoops hold a six-point lead over their arch rivals with four games remaining, so the pressure is on Rangers to keep the race alive three days after their narrow defeat in the Europa League.
It promises to be an electric atmosphere in Glasgow, so letโs look at the main talking points and some of the markets in our Celtic v Rangers betting tips.
Celtic v Rangers form
Rangers went close to holding RB Leipzig to a goalless draw in Germany on Thursday only for Angelino to give the Bundesliga side a 1-0 advantage with a well-struck volley from outside the area five minutes from time.
Gers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst, whose side overturned a 1-0 deficit against Braga in the quarter-final, said: โWe know what to do next week. Itโs a final in Seville we can qualify for.
โSo we have to give everything and Iโm sure our home game next week at Ibrox will give us a lot of energy to overcome Leipzig. They are a quality team as you saw but we want to reach the final. We have to prepare well as always next week and give everything to reach Seville.โ
Domestically, Rangers have lost just three SPL games this season, two of which came against Celtic, so they are going to have to up their game significantly if they are to make a successful title defence.
๐๏ธ Giovanni van Bronckhorst spoke to the media ahead of Sunday's Old Firm match. pic.twitter.com/zoOYVk8iHj
The Hoops remain unbeaten at home in the Scottish Premiership, winning 14 of their 16 matches during which they scored 44 goals and kept 12 clean sheets.
๐๐. ๐๐๐๐๐. ๐๐๐๐. โ#CelticFC's Callum McGregor and @Tom_Rogic have been nominated for the @PFAScotland ๐ฃ๐น๐ฎ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฌ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฟ award ๐
Celtic have held the upper hand this season, avenging a 1-0 defeat in August by winning the last two SPL meetings, both of which took place in the last three months.
Rangers, though, defeated their rivals in the Scottish Cup semi-final with an extra-time own goal after the scores had ended 1-1 at the end of 90 minutes.
Van Bronckhorst suggested it could be an open encounter at the weekend when he said: โYesterday the approach was to bring a good result back to Ibrox, Sunday we have to go all out and do everything for the win.
โOur focus is now on Celtic, we will recover and prepare for the game on Sunday. The belief is there, we will go there to get a good result. My objective is to have my players well prepared mentally and physically.โ
Celtic v Rangers team news
Not only are Rangers disadvantaged by the fact they were in Europa League action on Thursday and have just over 48 hours to recover, but they were also without Alfredo Morelos, Kemar Roofe and Aaron Ramsey.
Van Bronckhorst started Stephen Wright and Ryan Kent up front in what looked a 5-3-2 formation, but with Rangers needing to win the Dutchman is likely to ditch one or two defenders to make his side more potent in attack.
Celtic defender Josip Juranovic suffered an injury in the cup clash with Rangers and is likely to miss out again.
Midfielder Nir Bitton has been out for a month with an unspecified injury and he remains doubtful.
Goalscorer odds
Celtic have been scoring freely lately, smashing seven past St Johnstone, although the goals have generally been spread throughout the team, but Georgios Giakoumakis is the 7/2 favourite to break the deadlock having scored two hat-tricks this season, although he has yet to find the net against Rangers.
๐ฃ๏ธ "The most important thing is to make the team have a victory. As a striker I would like to contribute to a victory."@Kyogo_Furuhashi ๐๐ฏ๐ต
Reo Hatate drew first blood in the rout against St Johnstone and the win against Rangers in February, so we go 15/2 and 14/5 on the Japanese in the two options.
Roofe is the favourite from the Rangers contingent, but with doubts over his availability, Fashion Sakala is next in the betting at 6/1 and 14/5, although he has failed to score in his last eight games.
Penalty-taker James Taverier has 15 goals in all competitions this season and is 12/1 to get the ball rolling or 9/2 to score as he did in the Old Firm win at Ibrox three years ago.
