Rangers v Celtic
Scottish Premiership, Saturday, December 29. KO 12.30pm. Live on Sky Sports.
IT'S been tight at the top of the Premiership all season but there will be no stopping Celtic if they win at Ibrox today.
Killie, Hearts and more recently Aberdeen have all made challenges but let's face it this is a title fight between the Glasgow giants.
And it could be all but over if Celtic beat Rangers to move six points clear at the top with a game in hand and a better goals difference. That's potentially a 10-point gap that would be impossible to close.
If Celtic make it eight in a row they'll look back to Boxing Day as a defining moment – victory over Aberdeen stretching their lead to three points when they were more expected to drop points than Rangers.
Brendan Rodgers goes into the match unbeaten against his fierce foes and I reckon he'll emerge from a cauldron unscathed.
Celtic are 19-20 at 888sport and have won on their last five trips to Ibrox. Four of them were in the league with 12 goals scored.
Rangers are better this season but Steven Gerrard's men are dropping silly points and have several players doubtful while Rodgers will miss Tom Rogic but have most of his main men back.
Evens is maybe slightly short but Celtic seem to raise their game when it matters – like beating Killie 5-1 and the 4-3 success at Pittodrie.
Rangers are 13-5 at 888sportwhile the draw pays 5-2.
It's probably a must-not-lose for Gerrard so a point wouldn't be a disaster.
What Gerrard has in his ranks is the hottest striker in Alfredo Morelos who is 6-1 at 888sport to notch first and 49-20 at 888 to net.
Odsonne Edouard is likely to lead the Hoops line and is 9-5 at 888sport to score but the man to back could be Scott Sinclair, fresh from his hat-trick, at 13-5 to strike at any time.
The last four meetings at Ibrox have averaged four goals and over 3.5 pays 13-5 at 888sport.
As always punters will look at card markets. The ref is John Beaton and he's flashed 29 yellows in his last seven Premiership games and shown seven reds in all competitions – Celt Dedryck Boyata was one of his victims – including one at Aberdeen on Boxing Day.
A red always has a chance but pays no bigger than 7-4. Cards are set too high but what about a speculative punt on Gers keeper Allan McGregor to be booked at 14-1.
Recommended Bets
- Celtic (19-20, 888sport)
- Sinclair to score (13-5, 888sport)
- Morelos to score (49-20, 888sport)
- Over 3.5 match goals (13-5, 888sport)
Resident football tipster at Scotland's most read newspaper, the Daily Record, for over 20 years and proud host of one the best betting communities on the web with daily betting tips.
Think rangers win this one….
OK, so give us some reasoning. Any team can win a big derby but from what I’ve seen of Rangers recently they’re a little bit short.
My heart stuck some money on morelos to score 2 or get a hatrick. Just really hope he can be arsed and gets some decent service.
Scoring 2 or 3 will be a big leap forward having failed to score against Celtic.
No doubt he’s a talent but not sure he’ll get the chances to score a hat-trick.