Glasgow Rangers v Celtic
CIS Insurance League Cup Quarter Final
Wednesday 10th November 2004
Ibrox Stadium
Kick Off 7.45pm, Live On BBC Scotland
On Wednesday night, we look for our eight consecutive victory over Rangers, in the first of an Old Firm double header at Ibrox. The previous seven have been fairly easy for Celtic, but for a change, the huns seem unusually confident going in to this one.
Rangers are unbeaten in their last seven games. Wake up and realise that this means nothing. They have not faced any half decent side recently, and even rock bottom of the SPL Dundee United drew with them at Ibrox a fortnight ago. Scraping past teams like Dundee, Inverness and foreign minnows Maratimo does not gain you some supernatural advantage in an Old Firm game.
Perhaps they can take confidence in the fact that we haven't been playing at our best. Balde, Varga and Marshall have looked nervous and unreliable in our recent games, but Varga has been superb in our last two games, and we missed Balde against Kilmarnock at the weekend. We have still been scoring the goals and despite a few lapses in concentration, we haven't been playing too badly.
Perhaps our biggest blow was when Chris Sutton was ruled out of tomorrow's game. Rumours have been circulating today that Sutton trained with the team today and that he will be fit for the game, but Martin O'Neill may opt to stick him on the bench for now. It is also unknown at this moment in time, whether Bobo Balde will return for the game.
But the question on everyone's lips about tomorrow's game, is whether O'Neill will go with Juninho or McGeady. McGeady has scored in his last two SPL games and played just about well enough to keep his place in the matches, as well as against Shakhtar. Juninho's high profile absence from the last two matches has yet to be explained but he has not shown his true talents since joining Celtic. I believe Juninho will start tomorrow's game, with Martin O'Neill throwing down the gauntlet to him. He will be hungry, ready to go and will rip that mob apart.
The CIS Cup isn't the most exciting of tournaments but it's always good to win an Old Firm match. Though, with an SPL match coming up, if we were going to lose one I would rather lose tomorrow. That, of course, is no attitude to be carrying into a Celtic - Rangers game and I am quietly confident we'll come away with victroy in both matches.
Rangers don't worry me at all. Their defence is very average and if you take away Boumsong, you are left with a bunch of no-hopers in Marvin Andrews and Gregory Vignal. Fat Boab FTP is suspended for the game so we are likely to see the return of Crazy Horse Alex Rae. He'll be looking forward to another clattering from Neil Lennon in the opening five minutes of the game, then. Up-front, I do not fear the huns' SPL allstars. Stevie Thompson will bounce off of Varga all night, and Nacho Novo still has a lot to prove.
If our defence stays solid and we keep our discipline, we'll have no problems. We will score goals so if we can keep them quiet up-front we should be alright.
Tomorrow will be the first evening kick off in an Old Firm game since they somehow managed to beat us in extra-time of the Semi-Final of the same competition. I am looking forward to the game but I am not looking forward to the thousands of Catholic-hating monkies in the Rangers end. It’s sure to be jolly fun when the pre-match flute music is blaring out of the Ibrox tannoy system and the Govan poets come out to play with their unhealthy obsession with The Pope and Bobby Sands. And we’re paying £29 for the pleasure.
As I have said before, I am quite happy with them going into the game thinking they just have to turn up to win. God only knows where they are getting their confidence from. Celtic will do their talking on the pitch.
Enjoy the match.
Come On The Hoops!
Prediction: Rangers 1-3 Celtic