Celtic will go into the Glasgow Derby knowing that a win against the Rangers would virtually guarantee them the Premiership title. The Hoops have a 6-point lead over the Ibrox side at the moment with just 4 more games to go and have a significantly better goal difference as well. On the other hand, a defeat for Ange Postecoglou’s team would open up the title race again. Thus, a lot is riding on the result of this game.
While Celtic must be confident of their chances going into the game, having won 3-0 the last time these two sides met at Parkhead, the defeat and performance in the Scottish Cup semi-final showed that anything can happen in a Glasgow Derby.
Thus, Celtic will need to be on top of their game against the Rangers. A win would be a brilliant result for them but even a draw would favour the Hoops.
Heading into the contest, Celtic have received some well wishes from Real Betis, who were recently crowned the Copa del Rey champions in Spain. The club tweeted out:
💚🍀🏴
— Real Betis Balompié (@RealBetis_en) April 30, 2022
As we are not playing until Monday and we can't wait for football to be back (even if we are still struggling a bit after all the #CopaDelRey celebration), we have a plan for this Sunday.
We want to send @CelticFC all our support for the derby!#COYBIG pic.twitter.com/MpkU5tvfq2
Real Betis send brilliant message to Celtic ahead of Glasgow Derby against Rangers
The history between Celtic and Real Betis is well documented, and it is brilliant to see the Spanish club showing their support for the Green and White team of Glasgow.
The two sides met earlier on in the season in the UEFA Europa League in two thrilling games, with Real Betis winning 4-3 in Seville and Celtic winning 3-2 in Glasgow.
Postecoglou will have a much fuller squad of players to pick from than Giovanni van Bronckhorst, with the Rangers dealing with quite a few injuries right now. On top of that, they played in midweek as well, away against RB Leipzig. Thus, one would have to consider the Hoops as slight favourites going into the game but at the same time, one has to remember how wrong it went in the Scottish Cup semi-final under similar circumstances. There is no place for complacency.