Irked Rodgers plans another ‘upset’

Brendan Rodgers is very content going to Ibrox on Sunday as underdogs- with the memories of September fresh in his mind.

Following a 0-0 draw at home to St Johnstone the Irishman had to take his side across the city with the big hope being that loan signing Nat Phillips could prove his fitness for a baptism of fire.

Reo Hatate was out injured while in central defence Cameron Carter-Vickers, Stephen Welsh and Maik Nawrocki were all out injured leaving Gus Lagerbielke and Liam Scales as the last men standing.

After a nervy start a masterclass from Callum McGregor plus a moment of magic from Kyogo Furuhashi delivered an unexpected victory to provide Rodgers with some breathing space after a difficult start. That match turned out to be Micky Beale’s last experience of the fixture.

This time around Rodgers has virtually a full squad to select from but his side are again heavy underdogs with Philippe Clement attracting all of the attention and plaudits.

Having lost only once in the fixture Rodgers is very comfortable if a little irked by the build up to Sunday’s clash.

?? “It’s clearly a game we want to win, but we don’t need to…”

Brendan Rodgers ????????? on Celtic’s trip to face Rangers, the fitness of McGregor plus much more ?? pic.twitter.com/D83NWPpS6O

— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) April 5, 2024

I think it was a great lesson not only in football but in life. When we arrived in the game, individually and collectively we were written off in that game. Rangers were on the up, they were ready for us.

We had players missing, but we showed collectively that if you stay together and you focus, work hard and play to your level, then you’ll always be in with a chance to be the victor and that was the case.

I thought that was a very, very good win for us in a hostile environment. Obviously in the home game, we win a little bit more comfortably than the scoreline suggested, but still, we could play better.

We go into this game with the same intention and probably a similar narrative and similar storyline. Both teams are coming in with four victories and one loss in their last five games, but the narrative around Celtic will always feel a little bit like we’re behind. So that’s okay. It’s an opportunity for us and we look forward to taking that.

In six visits to Ibrox Rodgers has been on the winning side five times but his only defeat, in December 2018 was in a match refereed by John Beaten who will again be in charge on Sunday.