Philippe Clement insists Rangers’ season is not over ahead of Thursday’s Old Firm clash, while Brendan Rodgers has vowed Celtic will not “soften up” despite their 14-point lead in the Scottish Premiership.
The latest instalment of this fixture – live on Sky Sports – comes weeks after the two met in a controversial League Cup final which Celtic won on penalties.
Clement insists that defeat at Hampden Park proves Rangers can beat the champions, with the Scottish FA’s head of refereeing admitting afterwards they should have been awarded a penalty in extra-time when the score was level at 3-3.
However, if the Belgian is to mastermind a much-needed victory in this fixture, he will need to do it without captain James Tavernier who has joined a growing injury list.
Clement: We must prove they can beat Celtic
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Philippe Clement believes his team have proven they can take on Celtic and insists their season is not over despite trailing their rivals by 14 points ahead of Thursday’s match
“We deserved to win [the last match against Celtic], we had the best chances and some other circumstances also,” Clement told Sky Sports News.
“The team has shown that. It is about showing that again and taking the three points.”
When asked if some fans were right to think if the season was already over due to Celtic’s lead in the league, he added: “No, for sure [that is] not [the case].
“We are going to fight for every game and every result. That is the duty of everybody and also what everybody wants.
“It is a new squad, with a new long-term project, with young players getting better. It is about having the hunger and desire to win every game. That is what this club is about and that will never change.”
Rangers go into the game having lost at St Mirren and then drawing against Motherwell, with Clement adding: “Everybody who has seen the two games against Motherwell and St Mirren – we were the team who deserved to win these games with the amount of chances that we had.
“We need to be more clinical and efficient and the luck needs to drop more than we had in those games.”
Rodgers: Celtic will not soften up
Brendan Rodgers has won 16 of his 20 Old Firm matches, losing just one
The champions meanwhile are unbeaten in their last 27 league games but Rodgers insists they are taking nothing for granted against a Gers side who are coming under fire from their own supporters.
“Listen, we will always assume the pressure,” the Northern Irishman said. “We put ourselves under pressure in every game to win and to win well. So nothing changes in this aspect.
“We always stay in a humble way to prepare for games. People look at the gap, but that doesn’t even come into it. We cannot soften up, we will not soften up.
“We perform for the next game because we know how much this game means to people.
“I went there last season, the first game, under pressure and all the things. Now I go there with 14 points… but there’s no change for us, the mentality is to go and perform and look to play our game.
“That pressure will always be there and especially a game at Ibrox with no supporters.”
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Celtic’s Paulo Bernardo looks ahead to facing Rangers on January 2, live on Sky Sports, and says the team are targeting an even better 2025 – despite only losing two games this year
After growing up in a Celtic-supporting family in Country Antrim, Rodgers knows how much the fixture means to supporters regardless of the context of the league table.
“I understand the game – I understood it as a supporter – and I understood it from the first game I had as manager in September 2016,” he said. “I’ve enjoyed every single one of them. The build-ups to them are always great.
“There’s always pressure of some sort. I hear the talk about a ‘dead rubber’. There is never a Rangers-Celtic game that’s a dead rubber – not in my book.
“You want to win every game and you want to perform at the very best level. For me, I love the occasion, I love the game – it’s an iconic game and one that I always want to win.”
Rodgers has generally won them, 16 in total, and suffered only one defeat in 20 derbies. Victory on Thursday would mean he has enjoyed a career-high 17 wins against both Aberdeen and the Light Blues, more than against any other club.
Watch the Old Firm clash live on Sky Sports Football and Main Event from 2pm on Thursday January 2, kick-off 3pm.
