Rangers face Celtic on a Sunday in the Cup
All the madness comes on the Sunday
In a move that has come as no surprise to anyone, the Rangers v Celtic 5th round Scottish Cup tie will take place on Sunday 6th February with a 1215 kick-off.
The fact that the big two are facing each other took some by surprise yesterday but the tie has captured the imagination of Scottish football already. Even with a 6 match ban handed to Neil Lennon, Terry Butcher raging at fixture changes, Hearts being dumped out of the Cup and a third Celtic player being the intended target for bullets in the post…this Cup tie is still the main news story in Scottish football today.
The reasons for the early kick-off time have been debated over and over but if one team is triumphant in this tie, it gives their fans a long time to celebrate for the rest of the day. Then again, a victory in these games can often lead to a week’s worth of celebrations.
No announcement has been made about the game being televised yet but that is only a matter of time with Sky and BBC waiting in the wings. Whoever has first pick (we assume its Sky but can’t say for definite) will have this game on live.
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Should be an interesting tie, tactics will as ever form a big part of this game and we wonder if Lennon will play the often ridiculed tactics of Rangers with one up front, again looking to pick off Rangers on the break. It’s definitely a way of beating this Rangers side and I’m sure Lennon and co will set their stall out in the same fashion, a draw would be a great result for Celtic to get another old firm game at home and pile the pressure on Rangers with their fixture chaos.
I think Walter will be different this time around, hopefully Jelavic will be back and in scoring form, he certainly likes scoring against Celtic! Also having Naismith available will be crucial to our chances, Edu coming back will also stiffen the midfield. Hopefully it will have a real cup tie feel to it, I certainly expect the Rangers fans to be in far better voice for this game, the events of the Ibrox disaster were upper most in the memory of plenty of fans on that day and I think it was holding back the real sense of atmosphere that normally encompasses these events, certainly hope the Broomloan isn’t as vocal this time around!
A whole lot of football to be played before then but yes, your mind can’t help but wander to the next match between these two. That said, Celtic’s season is still capable of swinging from game to game. As we’ve discussed on here before, the big two always struggle to win at Hamilton – at least with score-line, if not possession and chanced and tonight is unlikely to be any different for Celtic.
The hoops will be forced into playing one man up front but that’s only because they’ve only got 1 forward. And Anthony Stokes is not a lone front-man. Expect Celtic to create tonight but struggle to make the chances count.
As for the Cup game – only a fool tries to predict the outcome of these matches….here goes!
Nah – too early for that – as you know full well Quags, 4-5-1 is not necessarily a defensive tactic, played well it can be devastatingly attacking. No team in Scotland has the personnel to do this but to be fair to Celtic, they deployed it at Ibrox. After 20 minutes, they settled into the formation and kept possession.After half-time they started exploiting the forward style of play it brings with midfield runners coming through and after the second goal, it suited Celtic’s needs perfectly.
The first goal is usually crucial – it wasnt back in October so it maybe defeats the argument but if Rangers take the lead at Ibrox, it will suit Walter Smth’s tactics perfectly.
With loads of fixtures to come before then and the January transfer window still to run its course, it’s hard to say what the starting 11s will be. A real cup tie atmosphere would be something to be hold…even if the 1215 start will do nothing to aid that.
12:15pm for you 7:15am for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!