Key events
31 min: Hagi beats Johnston in the air and gets a nasty elbow to the neck for his troubles. Thereâs a break in play and that will suit Celtic, as they attempt to reset.
29 min: Hatate is having a stinker for Celtic in midfield. I would expect to see Engels on at half-time if this carries on.
27 min: Hagi twists Johnston inside out, leaving the Canadian on the deck to win a Rangers corner. Celtic clear the danger but seem content to survive at the moment.
25 min: Raskin, Rangersâ stand-in captain, is the best player on the pitch. Heâs winning every tackle and has been smart in possession.
21 min: Celtic are finally settling down. They have had 60% possession but after a bright early couple of minutes have mostly pinged it around the centre backs and into McGregor in midfield. Maeda has been the bright spark on the left wing and after a good overlap from Taylor, the Japanese cuts in and shoots. It doesnât trouble Kelly but there are signs of life for the Bhoys.
19 min: Raskin wins another duel against McGregor in midfield. The Celtic man is not happy with himself of his team, effing and jeffing to himself as he trots back into position.
17 min: Celtic go route-one and Kyogo so nearly gets clean through on goal but the forward just canât reach the long diagonal pass.
15 min: Celtic simply havenât got to grips with the game. They are yet to string any meaningful passes together and are second to almost every 50/50.
Rangers hit the bar!
13 min: The hosts so close to doubling their lead! Rangers attack on the counter-attack and Cerny strides forward on the right. He cuts inside Carter-Vickers and unleashes a shot that loops onto the top of the Schmeichelâs bar and over! It took a little nick off Scalesâ back, so will be a corner. Without that deflection, it may well have found the net.
11 min: Now, then. We have a proper game on our hands. Diomande in central midfield has shown a couple of lovely touches for Rangers. And Jefte, at left back, has won his early battles against the dangerous Kuhn.
9 min: Perhaps Iâm being a little unfair on that Hagi finish. It wasnât the most powerful but it was so precise. Fair play to the Romanian, whose father Gheorghe is in the stands today.
GOAL! Rangers 1-0 Celtic (Hagi 7)
Rangers lead! Raskin, Rangersâ captain for the day, intercepts a lazy Scales pass in midfield and drives forward to the edge of the box. The Belgian lays the ball off to Hagi, who shoots early and catches Schmeichel on his heels. Hagiâs left-footed shot trickles into the side netting and Ibrox goes wild!
5 min: Cerny finds some space on the right and whips a cross in. The ball falls kindly three times to a blue shirt but three times Carter-Vickers makes a block. Rangers fans call for a penalty but thereâs nothing doing.
3 min: From the corner, Celtic take it short and McGregor whips a brilliant ball to the far post. Yilmaz, playing at the unfamiliar position of right back today, is caught on his heels and Kyogo so nearly has a tap in! The Japanese misread the flight of the ball and Rangers were able to hack it clear.
2 min: Maeda gets free down the left wing and whips a dangerous cross into the near post. Kyogo swings and misses and Rangers nervously get the ball behind for a corner.
Peeeeeeeeeep! Weâre underway in Glasgow.
There is a minuteâs silence for the 66 victims of the Ibrox disaster in 1971, 54 years to the day. Impeccably observed.
The teams are out. Ibrox is rocking!
Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers speaks:
Itâs always a stern test. Weâre looking forward to it. The players have shown great skill and talent and we play with discipline. Thatâs what required in a game like this.
We know they have gifted players but weâre coming here to impose our game.
Arne Engels wasnât so well this morning, so that made it an easy decision to put Paulo [Bernardo] in.
What a game this is for Liam Kelly, Rangersâ back up goalkeeper who starts today after Butland was hospitalised with internal bleeding. Kelly joined the club aged 10 and spent nine years in Rangersâ 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 monthâs 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 Aberdeenâs 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 âbuild a projectâ or âblood promising youngstersâ. 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 âsignificantâ internal bleeding in a leg. He is stable and recovering at home but wonât 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. Itâs on!
Kick-off: 3pm GMT.