Glasgow has already hit fever pitch with Old Firm fans, the Scottish media and the two teams discussing the upcoming clash that will take place at Ibrox on Sunday.

Various columnists and pundits have stated who they think is under the most pressure to get a result this weekend.

Celtic boss Brendan Roders insists that the heat is on the home side. He’s been backed up by Gers legendary figure Walter Smith who said:

“Sunday’s game is one Rangers have to win.”

“Not just for the sake of beating Celtic but for showing the rest of the world that, ‘Right okay, there might be a wee chase on for the league this year. Okay, this might be the start of Rangers coming back to being the club they were before all the turmoil”

While former Celtic star Kris Commons has stated that the champions are the ones that are under pressure to perform.

In truth, both sides have points to prove and that kind of shows us that the fixture is significant once again.

Without doubt Rangers have improved under Graeme Murty. His Gers side have won their last six matches on the bounce and a win in the derby will see them lie just three points behind the Hoops (Although Celtic will still have a game in hand). A positive result will probably cement Murty as the club’s next permanent boss.

As I’ve mentioned Rangers are on a decent winning run but they now need to prove that they can challenge Celtic and to do that they need to give their rivals a game and collect all three points.

Some of the boys in blue also have to show that they cane meet the demand that such a fixture brings.

Alfredo Morelos has had a terrific season thus far, but the Colombian hasn’t scored against the Scottish Premiership leaders and he’ll be determined to change that.

New boys like Russell Martin, Greg Docherty, Jamie Murphy, Sean Goss and Jason Cummings will want to prove that they can perform in such an intense atmosphere too.

In Glasgow’s east end, Celtic have to show that they can meet this Rangers revival and crush the optimism that currently seems to engulf Ibrox.

The champions haven’t been as strong since the end of December and complacency has taken hold on occasions recently. That being said they went up to Aberdeen and professionally ended the Dons title hopes last month.

Rodgers and his team will know that a win over Rangers will see them go nine points clear and still have that game in hand. That would probably knock the stuffing out of their closest rivals.

The Celtic defence will want to prove that they aren’t the side’s weakest link, Moussa Dembele will be determined to show he’s back to his goalscoring best and Scott Sinclair’s hoping he can rediscover his form.

As I said, both teams are under pressure to prove themselves as they meet up on Sunday.

I think it’s great that we are once again talking about this match and putting so much importance on it. On Sunday hopefully both sides will go for it and the victors can enjoy proving their point!

Posted on March 8th, 2018 by scott
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