Celtic v Rangers CIS Cup Final Preview

By: Matt | March 14th, 2009

Sunday afternoon will be a turning point for Celtic in the football year. Win the CIS Cup and Celtic is flying high in the final stretch of the SPL campaign with all the momentum. Lose and it will be two weeks in a row of poor play and murmurs from the Celtic support. Along with the normal “haw-haws” and “hee-hees” that come with beating the other side of the Glasgow derby and with winning a Cup, Celtic are looking to rebound after a poor performance from the line up that most (myself included) would guide us to our fourth SPL title in a row. Luckily for Celtic’s title hopes, the poor performance came during a Scottish Cup tie where no SPL points were at stake. While a Cup Final might be more high stakes than that, this match gives this Celtic squad the chance to show they can bounce back from adversary and that they are capable of playing with their biggest title contender rival. The question on most on the Timernet is will Gordon Strachan keep the midfield that put 7 on St Mirren and orchestrated a late game winner against Kilmarnock. Most seem to think that he will replace Marc Crosas with Paul Hartley, but I am not so sure. The Strachan-like move would be to put Hartley into the match for a Huns game, but something just tells me he’s going to stick with the Barca Bhoy. Then again the conspiracy theorist in me thinks that Strachan has been keeping Crosas out of big games to keep Barca from wanting him back in two years, so who knows.

The other question on the minds of those in Green and White is where the real Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink and Georgios Samaras are? The two big strikers bodies have been present, but other than that they have been MIA for awhile now. After both contributed solid years last year, neither can find the goal with a map. Their absence might force Gordon Strachan to go with a 4-5-1 with Scott McDonald as the lone striker, and while Skippy has had a decent season, you might want to bring your pillow to the game if that’s the case.

In terms of team news, Mark Wilson is “close to a return” for tomorrow’s match. Darren O’Dea has been doing a decent job filling at left back, but was probably at fault for St. Mirren’s goal last week. Willo Flood will not be in the team since he is cup tied, and Lee Naylor, Shaun Maloney, Paddy McCourt and Koki Mizuno are all ruled out due to injury. Barry Robson is also “unlikely to play”, which is a shame because in his time here at Celtic, Robson has seemed to come alive in his games against Rangers.

Celtic and Rangers are two different types of teams playing two different styles. It’s almost like a game of rock, paper, scissors with them. If Celtic tries to all out attack against Rangers defensive first mentality then they are subject to counter attacks. If Rangers sit back all day and don’t get forward, Celtic have proven in past games that they can eventually pick apart the defense and get a goal. If both teams are at their best, you’d like to think that the offensive play will get the victory.

The keys in past Celtic-Rangers ties this season has been the midfield. In the first matchup of the season, Pedro Mendes dominated the midfield and the results showed that for Rangers. At Ibrox, Barry Robson and Paul Hartley held rule over the middle of the pitch and Celtic got the three points. Celtic must do the same this Sunday at Hampden. If Celtic are winning balls in the midfield and stopping counter attacks before they get going, it will be very tough for Rangers to find offensive opportunities. It will be even tougher if Celtic are able to get a first half goal and make Rangers come out of their defend and counter mentality. I think Celtic will win 2-0 after Skippy nets a 40th minute goal and then gets the brace in the 80th minute.

TAL