19 minutes: Furuhashi puts Bassey under pressure as Celtic look to start the misplaced mojo… 18 minutes: Everything has relaxed a bit now, this initial frantic pace gives way to a calm possession football on both sides. 15 mins: Kent launches a long-range goal, but is straight to Hart. 13 minutes: Simple! Ludstrμm and Davis are currently in charge of the midfield – the former wins the ball, the latter finds Arfield on the right. Kent enters from the left to meet his cross and arrives in front of Ralston, but his shot is blocked by a yard. Great opportunity. 12 minutes: … hit by O’Riley, but Lundstram clears his head. 11 minutes: First proper attack for Celtic. Jota appears to be kicking the ball away from the right, but it goes wide. 9 min: Kyogo Furuhashi cuts the ball to Lundstram as the Rangers man looks to scroll the ball to the right. The referee keeps his papers in his pocket. Currently. 7 mins: Maeda appears to be heading towards a loose pass from Sakala, but he too is blocked. Everything a little amorphous right now. 6 minutes: Ludstrρουm shoots to the right, but Aribo can not cross Carter-Vickers in the middle to reach the end of the cross. 5 minutes: Celtic have made a touch, but Rangers push the center backs quite effectively and deny the ball time from the home side. 4 minutes: “Oh, not you again, illiterate snob”, laughs Norri Hernon. “Sorry if I’m the only one / 837th to make this joke.” My therapist will save his money this week. 3 minutes: Aribo starts from the middle for the Rangers, with Sakala on the right and Kent on the left. The latter escapes, but is blocked by Barisic, whose forward charge is not judged correctly. However, the visitors were the best side in these first skirmishes. 2 minutes: A frantic, bumpy start as you would expect. Peep! The Rangers start things in the bright sun of Glasgow. The players come out in Parkhead’s cauldron. John Terry is in the stands wearing a Celtic scarf and Rod Stewart is there too. Do the Rangers have reason to believe or is it Tonight The Night for a Celtic party? An email before the race: “Quick question for you”, begins Phil Withall. “I was always wondering about the contents of incoming matches during a high charge like this. I imagine that there is a lot of vitriol, pettiness and clear abuse. How do you and your fellow MBM journalists deal with this? Angry Types seem to be sticking with social media these days instead of targeting incoming MBMs. It wasn’t always like this: during a series of Ashes in Australia many, many years ago when I was doing OBO from London, I connected at 2am. or whatever, and every day without fail the same person would email me variations of “Oh, not you again, illiterate snob.” These groups again, in text form this time: Celtic (4-3-3 possible): Hart? Ralston, Carter-Vickers, Starfelt, Taylor; O’Riley, McGregor, Hatate; Jota, Furuhashi, Maeda. Supporters: Beaton, Giakoumakis, Abada, Turnbull, McCarthy, Rogic, Bain, Forrest, Wales. Rangers (4-3-1-2 possible): McGregor? Tavernier, Goldson, Bassey, Barisic; Lundstram, Davis, Arfield; Aribo; Sakala, Kent. Supporters: Jack, Diallo, Etten, Kamara, Sands, Wright, McLaughlin, Lowry, King. Referee: John Beaton A little reading before the match: here is Ewan Murray for today’s game and the bigger picture at the Premiership.
The teams
Preamble
Hello and welcome to the minute by minute coverage of the fifth and final Old Firm showdown of the 2021-22 season and the third meeting between these sides in less than a month. The Rangers beat their neighbors in the cup last time, but Celtic won the league draw at Ibrox in early April and can effectively seal the Scottish Premier League title with a win today. Celtic are ahead of Rangers by six points with four games left, so although a Rangers win today would delay the coronation, the Glasgow blue half would still need Celtic to lose points in two of their last three games if wants to deny its opponents 10th place. title in 11 years. The start is at 12:00 BST.
