Celtic vs Rangers Betting Preview & Tips

SCOTTISH football aficionado Gerry Taylor (@thefurlongpole) takes a look at Sunday's Old Firm derby tussle between Celtic and Rangers in the Premiership.

Celtic vs Rangers | Sunday 21st March 2021, 12:00 | Sky Sports

A meaningless, dead-rubber, with no spectators. Should be a quiet game then, with not a lot happening then, won't it? Maybe not.

A huge amount of pride will still be a stake, the Gers having wrapped up the league title, will want to reinforce their dominance this season with another victory over their old rivals.

The Hoops under John Kennedy till the end of the season, will be desperate for the win, to give their fans some crumbs of comfort, in what has been a pretty poor attempt at achieving 10 in a row league titles this season.

Predicting a winner in an Old Firm match can be tricky at the best of times. So this one is very difficult to weigh up for win purposes.

It's possible that Steven Gerrard's charges could suffer from a hangover from their Europa League exit on Thursday night at the hands of Slavia Prague. The Teddy Bears finished with nine men, as Roofe and Balogun were sent off.

It's difficult to know what players will be starting here, as both teams could make changes.

For that reason, my focus and angle in to this clash, is on the cards markets. Willie Collum is the referee. Here are his card stats when officiating in the big Glasgow derby:

24/10/10 – 5 yellow cards.
28/12/11 – 4 yellow cards.
10/09/16 – 7 yellow cards and 1 red card.
23/04/17 – 5 yellow cards.
11/03/18 – 6 yellow cards and 1 red card.
02/09/18 – 6 yellow cards.
08/12/19 – 5 yellow cards and 1 red card.

So in his last 5 Old Firms, Collum has brandished a red card on 3 occasions.

Here are the card stats for ALL the Old Firm clashes for the last three seasons:

2018/19 – 4 yellows, 4 yellows and 2 reds, 4 yellows, 6 yellows.
2019/20 – 6 yellows and 1 red, 5 yellows and 1 red, 2 yellows and 1 red.
2020/21 – 6 yellows and 1 red, 4 yellows.

So 5/9 of these matches recently, have contained a red card.

With all the recent evidence, perhaps a red card to be given should be around evens. So the 9/4 on offer with Skybet for a red card in the match could be value.