Celtic Must Outfight Rangers in Derby Clash

Mika Baur does not expect Sunday’s derby to be a showcase of Celtic’s “beautiful football and nice play”. He expects a fight.

Seven days on from a bruising 3-0 League Cup exit at Ibrox, Celtic meet Rangers again, this time at Celtic Park in the Scottish Premiership. The setting flips completely: from 50,000 Rangers fans roaring their team on to a packed Parkhead with no away support.

For Baur, that changes everything – or at least, it should.

“You could feel it's a special thing there [Old Firm game],” the midfielder said of last weekend’s defeat. “It was like 50,000 people against you, you should handle that. And on Sunday it's completely different.

“We have 60,000 on our side, so we should use that. We need everyone.

“We players will give 100 per cent on the field and we need everybody else to get that energy back and win on Sunday.”

The message from the Celtic dressing room is clear: this is not the time for aesthetics, it is the time for edge.

“I've said a couple of times now, stick together again, get the energy level really, really high on Sunday,” Baur stressed. “You will not win it with beautiful football and nice play.

“Maybe you will score through it, but you will win the game on Sunday with a mentality and with energy and that's what everybody should bring into the match.”

The scars of Ibrox are still fresh. Celtic were outgunned and outworked in the cup, and Baur is adamant that the response cannot just be tactical tweaks or a return to their usual passing rhythms.

“Sure you want to win. That's the first thing and in a couple of months, no one asks how you won,” he said. “You want to play attractive football, if you want to do good with the ball, against the ball.

Tactics are really important, but as we all saw last Sunday, it was not about that. It was about tackling back, to run back. It was about that and we should bring that on Sunday.

“You don't want to stop playing good with the ball.

“It's more about the energy, it's more about the mentality on Sunday, but it should be a good mix.”

Celtic’s response, then, will not be judged on patterns of play or possession charts. Not this weekend. It will be measured in duels, in sprints, in how they harness 60,000 voices when the game turns ugly.

Beautiful football can wait. The Old Firm rarely does.