Preview: Rangers vs. Celtic - prediction, team news, lineups

The first Old Firm derby of the season takes place on Sunday afternoon as Rangers play host to Celtic at Ibrox.

With both teams currently placed outside of the top three in the Scottish Premiership standings, defeat for either side would leave them further off the pace.

Match preview

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In a month where few things have gone to plan for Rangers, manager Steven Gerrard will be somewhat relieved that his team have managed to qualify for the Europa League group stages.

With himself and a number of key men isolating due to coronavirus restrictions, the positives will be taken from recording the clean sheet required away at Armenian side Alashkert.

However, Gerrard is the first to acknowledge that his players must go up several levels if they want to win back-to-back league titles, and there is now a feeling that Celtic have closed the gap from last year.

While that did not seem to be the case a few weeks ago, their fierce rivals have been on an upward trajectory at the same time that Rangers have under-performed on a match-by-match basis.

On the plus side, Rangers have kept three clean sheets from four outings in all competitions, the two goals conceded against Ross County coming after they had already established an advantage.

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Shutouts and goals have become a regular occurrence for Celtic under Ange Postecoglou, but the recently-appointed boss would have arguably taken as much from the 2-1 defeat at AZ Alkmaar than he has from all of their convincing wins put together.

Celtic had to withstand constant pressure at the home of their Dutch opponents, eventually prevailing 3-2 on aggregate to join Rangers in the Europa League group stages.

Their supporters, who have quickly become admirers of Postecoglou's style of play, will look past the setback on the night to take further positives from a performance full of character.

Not so long ago, they were considered the rank outsiders in a two-horse title race, but victory on Sunday would represent a remarkable turnaround in the battle for supremacy in Glasgow.

Kyogo Furuhashi continues to be a revelation at Celtic Park, his goal against AZ taking the Japan international to seven goals from eight appearances.

Team News

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Gary McAllister hinted on Thursday night that the players who missed the Europa League fixture on Thursday will all be available at the weekend.

That should see the likes of Allan McGregor, James Tavernier and Ryan Kent all handed immediate recalls to the Rangers starting lineup.

Leon Balogun may stay among the replacements after Connor Goldson and Filip Helander helped Rangers to a clean sheet in Armenia.

With Greg Taylor likely to miss out due to a shoulder injury, Celtic boss Postecoglou must decide whether to hand a start to either Adam Montgomery or Boli Bolingoli-Mbombo

Barring any further fitness issues, Tom Rogic and Odsonne Edouard are competing for the final place in the team.

Rangers possible starting lineup:
McGregor; Tavernier, Goldson, Helander, Barisic; Aribo, Davis, Kamara; Hagi, Morelos, Kent

Celtic possible starting lineup:
Hart; Ralston, Starfelt, Welsh, Montgomery; Christie, McGregor, Turnbull; Abada, Edouard, Furuhashi

We say: Rangers 1-1 Celtic

With both teams having endured difficult nights in Europe, we do not expect the most frenetic of derbies on Sunday.

Given their respective starts, both teams would likely take a point if it were offered to them, and everything points to a low-scoring draw in Glasgow.