Key events
What a game this is for Liam Kelly, Rangers’ back up goalkeeper who starts today after Butland was hospitalised with internal bleeding. Kelly joined the club aged 10 and spent nine years in Rangers’ academy but after a series of loans left the club permanently in 2018 without making a first-team appearance. After spells at Livingston, QPR and Motherwell, Kelly re-signed for his boyhood club in the summer and finally made his Rangers debut in last month’s win over Dundee. This derby, however, is a very different prospect.
Today marks 54 years since the Ibrox disaster, in which 66 Rangers fans died.
There was a memorial service outside Ibrox earlier this afternoon, which Rangers manager Philippe Clement attended.
This is the current league table, in case Rangers fans need reminding. For the neutral at least, a shame that Aberdeen’s early-season form has fallen away.
Rangers are severely weakened, but do have Rabbi Matondo and Cyriel Dessers on the bench if they need to make attacking changes. Turns out Balogun is not fit enough to even make the bench.
Celtic are almost at full strength. Only James Forrest and Odin Holm are out.
Team news!
Rangers: Kelly, Sterling, Propper, Yilmaz, Jefte, Diomande, Raskin, Cerny, Bajrami, Hagi, Igamane.
Subs: Munn, Cortes, Barron, Dessers, Matondo, Dowell, King, Fraser, Danilo.
Celtic: Schmeichel, Johnston, Carter-Vickers, Scales, Taylor, Hatate, McGregor, Bernardo, Kuhn, Kyogo, Maeda.
Subs: Sinisalo, Trusty, Palma, Idah, Valle, Yang, McCowan, Engels, Ralston.
Referee: Don Robertson
Preamble
Happy new year everyone. If the Old Firm derby is one of the fiercest in world football, this 2025 edition means the least it has done for some time. Celtic are 14 points clear at the top, impressing in the Champions League, have a proven manager, a vastly superior budget to anyone else in Scotland and have conceded just four goals in 18 league matches this season (scoring 52).
Rangers are on their worst run of the season, winning just one (a 1-0 home win over Dundee) of their past five fixtures in all competitions. The truth has always been thus: Rangers must aim to win every domestic game, and they have been a long way off that this season. There is little time to ‘build a project’ or ‘blood promising youngsters’. Manager Philippe Clement is increasingly under pressure, perhaps unfairly given the circumstances.
To make matters worse, Rangers and Clement have an injury crisis, with captain James Tavernier, Tom Lawrence, Neraysho Kasanwirjo and John Souttar all sidelined. In one of the more bizarre injuries of the season, goalkeeper Jack Butland spent Tuesday night in hospital after what he has described as “significant” internal bleeding in a leg. He is stable and recovering at home but won’t play today. Centre-back Leon Balogun is a doubt but may be available after taking a knock in the 2-2 draw at Motherwell.
Still, the sun is shining in Glasgow. This fixture is normally a midday kick-off, but many of the 50,000 Rangers fans will be well lubricated and ready to cheer their heroes towards an unlikely win. There might not be much to play in relation to the league table, but the Old Firm has always been much, much more than that. It’s on!
Kick-off: 3pm GMT.
