Old Firm Clash: Rangers vs Celtic in League Cup Quarter-Final

The first Old Firm of the season. A League Cup semi-final on the line. And 50,000 Rangers fans, with not a single Celtic voice allowed inside Ibrox.

If the rivalry ever needed extra charge, it has it now.

Old Firm, new stakes

Rangers host Celtic on Sunday in a quarter-final that feels far bigger than its label. A week later, the sides meet again in the Premiership across the city. The season is barely out of first gear, yet both clubs already sense a turning point.

Celtic arrive perfect in the league: six games, six wins. Rangers needed time to find their stride but have stitched together four straight victories after a stuttering start. The form lines are tightening just as the pressure spikes.

For Rangers, there is a raw edge to this tie. They have not lifted a trophy since 2024. The League Cup offers a first, very public test of Derek McInnes’ ability to turn them from nearly-men into winners. Celtic, for their part, want back the one domestic prize that escaped them last season. The cup that got away still irritates.

McInnes steps into the cauldron

Derek McInnes has felt Old Firm heat before, but never like this.

His last face-off with Martin O’Neill came in brutal fashion: a Premiership title decider last season, an agonising defeat, and his final act as Hearts head coach. Now 55 and in charge at Ibrox, he walks into the derby as Rangers manager for the first time, with a semi-final spot at stake and an entire stadium demanding a statement.

He knows this terrain. Sixty-one games against Celtic as a manager, 10 wins, and plenty of scars. As a player, he tasted victory in his only Old Firm appearance in a Rangers shirt. On Sunday, he discovers what it feels like when the decisions are his and his alone.

Across the divide, O’Neill is deep into familiar territory. The Northern Irishman has led Celtic into 28 Old Firm clashes and won 16 of them. He understands the rhythm of these games, the chaos, the moments when a manager can barely influence anything and the players must simply survive.

One man is debuting in the dugout. The other has lived this derby for years. Both know what one mistake can cost.

Selection puzzles: Rangers’ front line under the microscope

Team sheets will tell their own story.

McInnes’ biggest headache lies up front. Captain Lawrence Shankland is out. Youssef Chermiti is also missing. The focal point of the Rangers attack is suddenly a moving target.

Ryan Naderi has forced his way into the conversation. He kept his place for the midweek win over St Mirren after scoring the decisive goal against Motherwell when Shankland went off injured. He lasted the full 90 minutes again, worked hard, linked play – but it was substitute Bojan Miovski who delivered the only goal.

That finish has thrown Miovski right into contention. A former Aberdeen striker who knows Scottish defences and big occasions, he has given McInnes a genuine dilemma: stick with Naderi’s graft, or lean into Miovski’s penalty-box instincts?

Then there is Kevin Kelsy. The £9m deadline-day signing from Portland Timbers made his first start in midweek. He is still waiting for his first goal in a Rangers shirt, still feeling his way into the team. Does McInnes trust him to explode into life in the most unforgiving fixture of all, or hold him back from the furnace for now?

Whoever leads the line will do so with 50,000 people roaring every touch. And every miscontrol.

O’Neill weighs up his options

Celtic’s midweek win at St Johnstone doubled as a dress rehearsal.

O’Neill made five changes, resting key players with Ibrox in mind. One of those left on the bench, Camilo Duran, is almost certain to return. Six goals already this season, and a manager who openly admitted Celtic missed him in Perth. When he came on, he drifted to the right, with Kasper Hogh – back from injury – trusted through the middle.

Now the real call arrives. Does O’Neill shift Duran into the central role at Ibrox and sacrifice Hogh, or try to fit them both into the same frontline? Drop a proven scorer or a fit-again focal point? It is the kind of selection decision that can define a derby before a ball is kicked.

At the back, another question looms. Cameron Carter-Vickers, a defensive pillar, was rested entirely in midweek after starting every game so far this season. Dane Murray stepped in and delivered a solid performance. No fuss, no drama. But Ibrox in an Old Firm tie is not Perth on a league night.

Does O’Neill restore Carter-Vickers’ experience and leadership, or reward Murray’s form and keep the back line settled?

Then there is the goalkeeper call. Wolves loanee Sam Johnstone got the nod ahead of regular No 1 Viljami Sinisalo at St Johnstone and responded with a clean sheet and a crucial save at 0-0. He did exactly what a keeper in a loan spotlight must do: make the big moment count.

Johnstone’s performance has opened the door. Stick with the England international in the Ibrox cauldron, or revert to the man who has been between the posts more regularly? One choice favours momentum. The other, continuity.

Ibrox, but only half a derby

The stands will be full. The noise will be ferocious. But this will not be a typical Old Firm soundscape.

Only Rangers supporters will be inside the 50,000-capacity Ibrox for this League Cup quarter-final. Authorities have shut out away fans for Old Firm Premiership and League Cup games this season after a ticket allocation row between the clubs.

Both sides had previously agreed to a five per cent away allocation for all SPFL matches at Ibrox and Celtic Park. That truce did not survive the fallout from on-pitch clashes between fans after their Scottish Cup meeting in March. An independent review followed. The arrangements were torn up.

Celtic have gone to Govan without their own support before and won. That memory softens the blow for those at Parkhead, but it does not erase the strangeness. An Old Firm with only one set of voices changes the feel, the rhythm, the way players hear the game.

McInnes wants to weaponise it.

“We’ve got to bring the crowd with us,” he said, stressing the need for Rangers to feed off the noise rather than fear it. He knows his team will not dominate Celtic for 90 minutes. No one does. His message is simple: use the good spells, turn chances into goals, and let the stadium do the rest.

If Rangers score first, he believes, Ibrox can become suffocating.

O’Neill, for his part, is braced for the imbalance. He called it “strange” not to have any Celtic fans in their corner and admitted he has always valued even a “crumb of comfort” from a small away section. Still, he trusts the fixture itself to generate its own energy.

Police visited Celtic’s camp this week for a short meeting about behaviour and conduct. O’Neill welcomed the reminder. In a game that often teeters on the edge, he wants control where he can get it.

A derby that could shape the season

So here it is. Rangers chasing their first trophy in two years, Celtic hunting the cup that slipped away. A new Rangers manager stepping into his first Old Firm in the dugout, an old hand in the opposite technical area. No away fans. No neutral ground. No hiding place.

Win, and the path to Hampden opens up along with a surge of early-season belief.

Lose, and questions arrive fast. About selections. About mentality. About whether this season’s story is already being written in someone else’s colours.

In a stadium roaring for only one side, can Celtic silence Ibrox again – or will McInnes’ Rangers finally turn the volume into silverware?