The first Old Firm derby of the 2024–25 Scottish Premiership season is scheduled to take place at Celtic Park on Sunday afternoon between Celtic and their bitter rivals Rangers.
With three victories out of three, the hosts lead the visitors in the league by two points. The visitors have won two and drawn one of their three games.
Having won the Scottish Premiership in 18 of the 25 seasons from the year 2000, Celtic has emerged as the dominant power in Scottish football in recent years.
Rangers' financial difficulties in 2012 led to their drop to the third division, which only served to increase Celtic's power as they would go on to win nine straight titles from 2011 to 2020.
After being denied a record-breaking tenth in 1974–75, the Bhoys won nine titles in a row for the second time in their history. However, they were once again halted by a powerful Rangers squad in 2020–21.
But during the next several years, Celtic has reclaimed its hegemony in Scottish football. They have won the league the last three times, and they are the team to beat going into this season.
The previous tenure saw Brendan Rodgers leave Celtic Park for Leicester City in a rather bitter way in February 2019, but he was welcomed back into the club at the start of the last season, and he has only lost 8 competitive games since.
As it stands Celtic has started the 2024-25 season on such a spirited note; the club has no sales in the league; they have won four matches scoring 12 and only conceding one goal without any defeat in the last 20 games across all tournaments since a March loss to Hearts.
The last time these two teams met, Celtic nicked the Scottish Cup by a final minute superb finish from Adam Idah and that made it five games where Rangers are defeated by the Bhoys since they made the treble league champions surrender in the season May on 2023.
From Rangers, after getting promoted successfully through the divisions by claiming the league title in 2020-21 without losing any single match after the demotion to the third division, the following years have been terrible for them.
While the Gers end their respective seasons as the runner up in each of the three campaigns since their league championship, they lag further and further behind the Celtic each year.
They ended four points adrift in 2021-22, seven points adrift in 2022-23 and eight points adrift in 2023-24 and this is where Philippe Clement come in to change the narrative this season.
Giovanni took over in November 2023 after Michael Beale was dismissed from Rangers after the club was seven points behind Celtic after only seven games into the season, but Clement failed to reduce the difference.
Gers had a nnreasant pre-season form heading into the new season with the team managing only three victories and a draw in the four warm-up matches that preceded the start of the new season and the team only registered one victory in their first four competitive fixtures of the season.
Clement’s team have brightened in the past two games with victories against St Johnstone 2-0 and Ross County 6-0 and they will be keen to put an end to the run of Old Firm derbies without a victory on Sunday.
After Matt O'Riley left for Brighton & Hove Albion, Rodgers could start the same lineup that beat St Mirren in their most recent Scottish Premiership game. Reo Hatate, Callum McGregor, and Paulo Bernardo are anticipated to start in midfield.
Rangers players Ridvan Yilmaz, Oscar Cortes, and Nicolas Raskin are all anticipated to be out of the lineup; all three should be back in September.
Top scorer Cyriel Dessers is expected to lead the line for Clement, who is expected to choose an unchanged starting lineup after an impressive 6-0 victory against Ross County.
