Scottish League
2008-04-16 - Glasgow Celtic vs Glasgow Rangers
A Sports Betting Pick by chappers
- Scottish Premier League -
Celtic Park
16th April 2008 KO 8PM (live on Setanta)
Glasgow Celtic (2nd SPL)
Played 32 with 71 points
It seems very simple for Celtic and that is that they must win this game to keep any faint chance of the SPL title alive. They are currently four points behind Rangers with two old firm games to play (including this one). So with two win it would mean that Celtic are one point in front, but and this is a big but and that is that Rangers have two games in hand.
Yet while saying this, every Celtic fan to a man (or woman) would take two old firm derbies and while the title would still be Rangers hand's any slip up's could be vital and with Rangers still playing in Europe then who knows. I heard talk of Celtic maybe looking to get rid of wee Gordon but that just seems crazy to me and once more proves that if true that some people just haven’t got a clue.
Anyway Celtic have lost twice in the league in recent weeks once at home when Motherwell came to town and the other at Ibrox and they lost both games by 1-0. If you go a little further back and include the last five games home or away you will see that they have a record of 3-1-2 which isn’t very good for team like Celtic, but if you then look back to the previous nine you will see a record of 9-0-0 so to be honest it hasn’t been an awful season but when you trail your fierce rivals that isn’t good enough for the green and white side of Glasgow.
Glasgow Rangers (1st SPL)
Played 30 with 75 points
Rangers have already won the League Cup and also find themselves in the Semi Finals of both the Scottish Cup and UEFA Cup, so this could be a clean sweep this season for them. As much as Celtic know that a couple of old firm wins could relight their season, Rangers know that if they win the last two old firm games of then the title will be theirs.
This is a team that has seemingly forgotten how to lose as they have not lost in the league since the 28th October and not lost any football match since 13th March. In fact the 13th March defeat came in the second leg of the UEFA cup-tie away at Bremen is their only defeat in 29 games and this is record that Rangers are rightly proud off.
They did draw last time out away from home coming from behind three times to draw 3-3 with Dundee United. However playing away is not something they do at the moment and you have to go back to the end of February for the last away game prior to this when they beat Hearts 4-0.
A win in this game will put them seven points clear of Celtic with only six games left for Celtic and eight for Rangers so while not being confirmed the league title for me will be at Ibrox in the summer and with some luck and hard work it will be along side the UEFA cup and Scottish cup to cap a fantastic season for the Rangers.
Head to Head
You have to back one calendar year for the last time that Rangers and Celtic met at Celtic Park and that ended in a Rangers win. IN fact September 06 is the last time Rangers lost to Celtic (and I get free food when ever Rangers beat Celtic so that a lot of nice meals I’ve had recently, but that’s another story). These games however are normally very hard to predict and with a last six game record at Celtic of 3-1-2 it could go anyway.
Verdict
This is a must win game for both teams for very different reasons. If Celtic win then it keeps the slight hope that they can win the title and if you listen to some keep the current boss in a job. However for Rangers three points here will almost certainly bring the league title back to Ibrox.
However for me I think that the draw is more than likely and in a derby game you cannot go far wrong with this bet.
So the draw @ 3.20 it is for me.
The Pick :
Match to end in a draw
