Q: You only won one in five against theRangers last season. How do you go about recapturing that dominance that you’ve enjoyed in that fixture previously?
Brendan Rodgers: “Play well. That’s a start. I think you think of performance. We’ve won most of our games against theRangers because we’ve played well and focused on performance. Not getting too caught up in the whole hype of it all. Playing without fear and playing the level of football that’s expected here at Celtic. When we’ve done that in the majority of my time here, we’ve played well and won the games. The games last year, the games we lost, we didn’t deserve to win. We were beat well there at Ibrox. We lost a home game that we shouldn’t have lost. And then obviously the draw and the chance to win that game. And then the Cup Final we won on penalties. So, yeah, it’s not rocket science. Play well, play with confidence, compete, fight, run, show your quality and you’ll always have a chance of winning the game.”
Brendan Rodgers during the Premier League match between Celtic and Livingston at Celtic Park on August 23, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
Q: When you analyse those matches, what didn’t Celtic do right, what did you address specifically, areas of performance you weren’t happy with?
Brendan Rodgers: “You always analyse and you always observe the games and see where you can be better. Each time you’re playing against different managers, different coaches, different styles. So, you always have to take that into consideration. I think the game that we lost at Parkhead, we weren’t very good in the first half. Give away two poor goals. Dominated the second half and then lost to a mistake later in the game. So, we shouldn’t have lost that game, but, yeah, listen, you always analyse but then you look to learn from it and then bring it into your next game. So, I’m looking forward to seeing us in the response from our midweek in this game. And like I said, domestically, we’ve started well in terms of performance and result. And I always feel, especially with adding to the squad, that we’ll get better. So, that starts on Sunday.”
