Celtic vs Rangers
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Today’s secondary featured game is the Scottish Premier League game between Celtic and Rangers. We all know that this is a very heated affair and thus all bets on this game should be cautious ones!
Celtic have had a bit of an up-and-down season despite their convincing statistics. Injuries to some key players have made life hard for them but to be honest, it’s their unconvincing displays that concern me. What you’ll very rarely see nowadays is Celtic blowing a side away. It’s no secret that this is far from the best side that they’ve ever had but they’ve become dour and efficient rather than entertaining and whole-hearted. The injury to Izaguirre did a lot of damage to Celtic and although he’s back in training now, I think it’ll be some time before we see the Honduran back to his best. Hooper is having a good season for Celtic, which is beneficial as they’d be really lost without his goals this season. However, for me, their defence is struggling against even the most average of attacks and their inability to name a consistent back four this season has surely played a large part in that. There are still question marks over the managerial capabilities of boss Lennon and that’s understandable as he’s not really very good, in my view. Appointing a former player as boss doesn’t automatically mean that he’ll become a good boss and I think that’s perfectly true here. Nonetheless, his boys will be motivated here – we all know that they hate Rangers but they’d also pass Rangers in the table with three points here so I think we’ll see a bit of extra vigour from The Hoops today.
Visitors Rangers have been the better of these two sides by far this season. I would attribute that to them having marginally better players more than anything because again, appointing a former player as a boss doesn’t make him a good manager and this is again true for Ally McCoist, who seems somewhat clueless tactically more often than not. Fortunately, McCoist does have a host of experienced players in his squad and that aids Rangers massively. McCulloch, Goian, Bocanegra, Whittaker, Jelavic, McGregor, and even Davis – they all know the score. However, they had their pride punctured last match with a 2-1 defeat at St.Mirren which resulted in their number of goals conceded away from home this season being doubled, amusingly enough. Rangers have complained about their red cards in that game for Goian and McCulloch respectively but they still stand and subsequently both miss this game. Again, this harms the Rangers defence as for me, Goian is their best defender – absolute monster in the air – and McCulloch lends their midfield a steel that they often need. That doesn’t help their cause at all as they have actually struggled in defence lately, shipping in four out of their last five Premier League games. It’s not an ideal way to take on Celtic at Celtic Park and I think they’re in for a tough night. However, with Jelavic in their ranks, you know that they can score goals and Rangers should be able to do that quite freely here given the unconvincing approach of Celtic and especially their defence.
Rather than enter the dodgy-as-hell 1×2 market, I’m going to opt for over 2.5 goals here. It doesn’t often come in for this derby, statistically speaking, but I feel it will tonight. Celtic need to win, neither side is in great shape at the back, and neither side has a good enough manager to keep the players composed during this game. I expect a lot of cards here and I think we’ll see bad enough defending for over 2.5 goals to come in and therefore I feel it’s worth a punt at evens.
Verdict: Over 2.5 goals at evens.
Wednesday’s Picks
As ever, if there are any explanations required then please feel free to post a comment! For the remainder of my thoughts on today’s games, see below, although I feel compelled to write that the below are not necessarily my tips but merely my thoughts to prevent endless questions about my thoughts on certain games!
Greek Super League:
OFI Crete vs Levadiakos (7) 1-0
Aris Salonika vs Doxa Dramas (8) 2-0
Scottish Premier League:
Aberdeen vs Hearts (5) 1-0
Celtic vs Rangers (6) 2-1, at least one red card in this game
Hibernian vs Inverness Caledonian Thistle (6) 2-1
Motherwell vs Dunfermline Athletic (7) 2-0
St.Johnstone vs Kilmarnock (5) 1-1
St.Mirren vs Dundee United (4) 0-1
Enjoy your free betting tips!