Rangers vs Celtic Prediction: An entertaining tough rivalry ahead

This Sunday will see the first Old Firm matchup of the new season, which will see bitter rivals Rangers and Celtic square off against one another at Ibrox Stadium on Sunday afternoon. While the Bhoys were restricted to a goalless draw by St. Johnstone in their most recent match, Rangers were eliminated from the Champions League playoffs on Wednesday after suffering a 5-1 defeat at the hands of PSV Eindhoven.

PSV Eindhoven and the Gers went into the second leg of their Champions League playoff with the tie poised at 2-2. However, the Dutch side ended up notching a 7-3 triumph against the Gers after beating Michael Beale's men by a score of five on Wednesday. PSV ran riot in the latter parts of the match, with Connor Goldson's ludicrous own goal topping off a wretched night for the Scottish team. Isamel Saibari scored twice to make it 4-2 on aggregate before James Tavernier pulled a goal back midway through the second half. Rangers' problems have been compounded by the fact that they are currently one point behind Celtic in the standings of the Scottish Premiership. This comes after they were stunned by Kilmarnock 1-0 on the opening weekend of the season, despite the fact that they had 18 shots on goal and 69% of the possession at Rugby Park. The Gers, however, quickly got back on track with a 4-0 win over Livingston and then a 2-0 win over Ross County. This means that Beale's team has scored six goals in their most recent two league matches while also keeping a couple of clean sheets for good measure. It goes without saying that Rangers would be unhappy to have missed out on a place in the Champions League, but they have the opportunity to make amends for their loss on Wednesday by gaining bragging rights in Glasgow at the expense of their fierce rivals this coming Saturday.

In spite of taking 19 shots and having the majority of possession at home, Brendan Rodgers's team was unable to capitalize on their dominance against the Saints, who were only able to get two shots on target during the entire match. The Saints were able to make the most of their limited opportunities.Celtic started their season in the Premiership with a 4-2 victory over Ross County, partly thanks to a double from David Turnbull. The defending champions then followed up that victory with a 3-1 victory against Aberdeen, with Kyogo Furuhashi scoring for the second game in a row. Since then, the Bhoys have played to one tie and one loss, with a shocking 1-0 setback to Kilmarnock in the second round of the Scottish League Cup preceding the Bhoys' stalemate with St. Johnstone at the weekend before that.Celtic won 32 of their 38 league games last season under the direction of Ange Postecoglou on their way to earning a spectacular treble. However, since Brendan Rodgers has returned to the team, Celtic have already dropped points and have been eliminated from the League Cup.

Rangers possible starting lineup:

Butland; Tavernier, Goldson, Souttar, Barisic; Cifuentes, Lundstrum, Raskin; Cantwell; Matondo, Dessers

Celtic possible starting lineup:

Hart; Johnston, Lagerkielke, Scales, Taylor; O'Reily, McGregor, Turnbull; Maeda, Furuhashi, Yang

When Rangers and Celtic square off against one another, there is almost always plenty of excitement to be had, and it appears like Sunday's matchup will be no exception to this rule. Due to the fact that both teams have already suffered losses in this season's standings, we anticipate that the Old Firm rivals will play out an exciting tie at Ibrox.