Old Firm Clash: Rangers vs Celtic in League Cup Quarter-Final
The first Old Firm of the season arrives with no room for error. No easing into the rivalry. No gentle reintroduction.
Rangers host Celtic at Ibrox on Sunday in a League Cup quarter-final that already feels like a referendum on both clubs’ direction – with a Premiership showdown at Celtic Park looming just seven days later, live on Sky Sports.
Celtic have hit the ground sprinting, six wins from six in the league. Rangers stumbled early, then quietly stitched together four straight victories to steady themselves before walking into the storm.
Silverware sharpens the edge. Rangers have not lifted a trophy since 2024. Celtic, for all their domestic dominance, let this particular cup slip away last season. One of them walks off with a semi-final place and a surge of momentum. The other is left with questions and a long week.
McInnes steps back into the fire
Derek McInnes knows what it feels like when a season comes down to 90 minutes. His last meeting with Martin O'Neill was the Premiership title decider last term, an agonising defeat that doubled as his final game in charge of Hearts.
Now 55 and back in Govan, he walks into his first Old Firm as Rangers manager – and his first in the dugout full stop – with the stakes already spiking.
He has lived this derby from the pitch. His only Old Firm appearance as a Rangers player ended in victory. From the touchline, though, his history has been mostly written from the other side. McInnes has faced Celtic 61 times as a manager and won 10 of them. He understands the scale of the task, the noise, the scrutiny, the way one mistake can define a month.
O'Neill, by contrast, is deep into Old Firm territory. This is familiar ground. The Celtic manager has already led his side into 28 meetings with Rangers and come out on top in 16. He has felt the fixture turn, both for and against him. He knows when to lean into the chaos and when to cool it.
The tactical battle is intriguing. The emotional battle might be decisive.
Rangers’ striker puzzle without Shankland
McInnes has a problem to solve at the sharp end. Captain Lawrence Shankland is out. So is Youssef Chermiti. The focal points are missing; the system has to bend.
Ryan Naderi has made his case. He earned a start in the midweek win over St Mirren after coming off the bench to score the winner against Motherwell when Shankland went down injured. He led the line for 90 minutes. He worked. He occupied defenders. Yet it was the substitute, Bojan Miovski, who found the breakthrough and scored the only goal.
That finish throws Miovski straight into the conversation. The former Aberdeen striker knows Scottish defences, knows these kinds of nights. Has he done enough to force his way into McInnes’ starting XI for the biggest game of the season so far?
Then there is Kevin Kelsy. The £9m deadline-day signing from Portland Timbers made his first start in midweek and is still chasing his first goal in a Rangers shirt. He is raw in this environment, untested in this rivalry. But sometimes this fixture creates unlikely heroes. Is an Old Firm at Ibrox the right stage to unleash him, or too big a risk when margins are this thin?
McInnes must pick his finisher – and live with the consequences.
O’Neill weighs up his attacking hand
Celtic arrive with different dilemmas. Not fewer, just different.
O'Neill rotated heavily for the midweek win at St Johnstone, making five changes and resting key players with Ibrox in mind. The job got done. The bigger test lies ahead.
Camilo Duran, already on six goals this season, is expected to return to the starting line-up after O'Neill admitted they missed his presence in Perth. Duran came off the bench there, replacing Haissem Hassan and shifting to the right while Kasper Hogh – back from injury – led the line through the middle.
That leaves a straight question: does O’Neill push Duran into the central role and sacrifice Hogh, or try to fit them both into a front line built to withstand Ibrox’s intensity? Drop the Dane after a comeback start, or keep his physical presence and ask Duran to hurt Rangers from wider areas?
Behind them, another call looms. Cameron Carter-Vickers, the defensive pillar, sat out the St Johnstone game entirely after starting every match up to that point this season. Dane Murray stepped in and delivered a solid performance. He did nothing wrong. But this is Ibrox. This is Old Firm. Experience tends to trump sentiment here. Does O’Neill restore Carter-Vickers for his authority and calm, or reward Murray’s midweek display?
Even in goal, there’s a live debate. Wolves loanee Sam Johnstone started ahead of regular keeper Viljami Sinisalo in midweek and produced a crucial save at 0-0 before seeing out a clean sheet. He looked assured. He did what he was asked to do. Now O’Neill must decide if Johnstone has earned the gloves again in the most hostile atmosphere Scottish football can offer.
Every selection call carries weight. Every one will be judged by the final score.
Ibrox turned one-sided
If the football didn’t make this feel different enough, the stands will be.
Only Rangers fans will be inside the 50,000-capacity Ibrox for this League Cup quarter-final, after the authorities ruled there would be no away support amid the ongoing ticket allocation dispute between the clubs.
Both sides had previously agreed to a five per cent away allocation for all SPFL games at Ibrox and Celtic Park. That plan crumbled after clashes between supporters on the pitch following their Scottish Cup tie in March and an independent review that followed. The result is an Old Firm stripped of its traditional split in the stands.
Celtic know this scenario. They have come to Govan before without their own fans and still found a way to win. That memory softens some of the concern among the Parkhead support. But it does not change the reality for the players: 50,000 voices, all pulling in one direction, all ready to surge with every tackle, every break, every shot.
McInnes wants to harness it. He has been clear.
“We’ve got to bring the crowd with us,” the Rangers manager said. “You’re not going to play Celtic and dominate the game for 90 minutes. We’ll have spells, they’ll have spells, it’s just the way it is.
“I think it’s important that we tap into having that 50,000 behind us and be behind the players, support them, have their backs, not be on their backs and really make it as tough for Celtic as possible.
“If we can get ourselves in front, give the crowd something to get behind, then I think the strength of our club can be shown.”
O’Neill, for his part, accepts the strangeness of walking into an Old Firm without a pocket of green and white in the corner.
“Looking forward to it in the usual way, nervously looking forward to it, excitedly looking forward to it. It’s a great fixture,” the Celtic manager said.
“It’ll be strange in many aspects not to have any away fans in our area. I always felt as if it would give you a crumb of comfort in some description, but it is what it is.”
Police visited Celtic’s camp this week for a short briefing, a reminder about behaviour around a match that never needs extra fuel.
“I think it’s the overall picture. Gosh, it’d be nice to have something to celebrate,” O’Neill added. “The games themselves almost take care of themselves in that sense.”
He has seen Ibrox at full volume before. “The league game that we played, 2-0 down early on in proceedings and Ibrox probably as loud as it’s ever been,” he recalled. This time, that noise will come without any answer from the away end.
The prize is clear: a place in the last four, a shot at the season’s first trophy, and a psychological edge before the league meeting that follows hard on its heels.
One game, one ground, one set of fans. Which side uses that cauldron to launch their season – and which one gets burned?
