Celtic will face Rangers on the 31st of August with a 12pm kick-off and the match will be broadcast live on Sky Sports.
Celtic will kick off the new Scottish Premiership season against St Mirren at Parkhead as Brendan Rodgers looks to get the defence of the title off to a winning start.
With a tough away game against Aberdeen after the season opener and then David Martindale’s Livingston returning to Celtic Park, the Hoops have two tough games before they can even think about facing Rangers.
However, new Rangers boss Russell Martin has reacted to the news that he will face the current Scottish Premiership champions Celtic at Ibrox just four games into the new season.
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Russell Martin ‘expected’ Rangers to face Celtic early
Martin has faced Celtic as a Rangers player but never as a manager and after hearing that he is set to face the Scottish champions on matchday four, the Ibrox boss says the game is ‘exciting’ to look forward to.
Martin said on Sky Sports, “I think every game is different. Every challenge is different, but we have to approach it in the way that we want to, and we have to try and be the team that we want to.
“Whoever we’re playing against, whether it’s home, away, as I said, it’s a European game, it’s an Old F-rm game, it’s Motherwell the first game, we have to try and attack it and be the team that we want to be.
“So I think it’ll be about us. We’ll focus on us, make sure that we are improving day on day in pre-season, to be ready to put in performances that we are proud of and we feel and we will get better and better.
“So we have to make sure that early on, we’re ready to put in performances that look like us and enable us to win games.
“I’m not sure it does [matter when the Rangers face Celtic]. I think we expected it to be early. It usually is, but we have a lot of games to focus on before then, and a lot of work to do before then.
“But of course, they’re exciting games. They’re special games. But as I said, we have games before that, and every game is going to be so important.”
What happened last season when Celtic faced Rangers in the Scottish Premiership
Celtic won the league by a massive 17 points last season as Brendan Rodgers ran away with the club’s fourth title in a row.
But let’s remind ourselves at what happened during the four Glasgow Derby league fixtures:
- 01.09.2024: Celtic 3 v 0 Rangers
- January 2, 2025: Rangers 3 v 0 Celtic
- March 16, 2025: Celtic 2 v 3 Rangers
- 04.05.2025: Rangers 1 v 1 Celtic
Despite losing two of the four fixtures, Celtic still romped the league and the fans will be hoping for an improvement on results against Rangers and a similar winning margin.
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