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Rangers v Celtic match preview

A first Scottish Premiership win at the fourth attempt would be a remarkable plot twist in the embattled Russell Martin’s troubled start to the season with Rangers.

The 55-time champions have drawn their first three league games 1-1 with Motherwell, Dundee and St Mirren but the lowest point arrived on Wednesday with a 6-0 defeat at Club Brugge to end their Champions League qualifying bid 9-1 on aggregate.

“That is the brilliant thing about football,” said Martin, offering admirable optimism while understating the nature of the hammering.

“After a disappointment in midweek, you have an opportunity to put things right. It is about making sure we do ourselves justice, the players show that they are worth the shirt and that they really want to be here and have the desire to win.

“It is all about who handles the occasion best, who has done their work, who is prepared. We have to make sure we focus on ourselves and we are ready for that.

“There’s no better game to win than this. It means so much to everyone. It is one of the biggest games in the world and I mean that in terms of interest and how much it means to the people involved.”

Perhaps one of the only consolations for Celtic, who crashed out of the Champions League the previous day, was that their performance in a dire second leg at Kazakh side Kairat proved somewhat more respectable than Rangers’ routing.

The Hoops missed out on reaching the competition proper for the first time in four years after spurning a selection of good chances in Almaty, drawing 0-0 on aggregate before going out on penalties.

“Domestically, we’ve made a good start,” said manager Brendan Rodgers, discussing Celtic’s three-match winning start in the Premiership.

“It’s a shame the two 0-0 draws have put a real dampener on it, but we go into this game and we want to continue that good form.”

Rodgers has won 16, drawn four and lost three against Rangers as Celtic manager. “We’ve won most of our games against Rangers because we’ve played well,” he said.

“We’ve focused on performance and not getting too caught up in the whole hype of it all, playing without fear and playing the level of football that’s expected here.

“When we’ve done that in the majority of my time here, we’ve played well and won the games.”

Rangers v Celtic team news

Dujon Sterling is yet to return for Rangers from an Achilles injury sustained in April but new signing Bojan Miovski, who scored 44 goals in 98 appearances for Aberdeen before joining Girona last August, is expected to be in contention.

“I don’t need to say a lot of words about the history of the Old Firm,” the 26-year-old North Macedonia international told Rangers’ website. “I am excited that it could be my first game.”

Russell did not confirm reports that midfielder Nicolas Raskin, who came off the bench during the second leg against Brugge, is out of his squad and has been excluded from training.

New winger Michel-Ange Balikwisha could feature for Celtic, as could Uruguayan left-back Marcelo Saracchi if he is registered in time.

“I need to be ready because it’s the most important game for the fans and the club,” Balikwisha told Celtic’s site.

Right-back Anthony Ralston is expected to be available following a knock but defenders Auston Trusty (foot) and Alistair Johnston (hamstring) and winger Jota (knee) are out.