MIKAEL LUSTIG believes the football world has fallen out of love with the Old Firm game, writes Neil Cameron.
The supporters on either side still can’t get enough, Hampden could have been sold out twice over, but the Swede feels things have changed for those who don’t live and breathe Celtic and Rangers.
Celtic’s right-back was an avid viewer of this fixture but feels some of the shine has come off it.
Read more: Brendan Rodgers dismisses talk that Rangers have significantly closed the gap to his Celtic
Lustig said: “It was bigger before back home. The Old Firm games used to be shown live on the telly when Henrik Larsson was playing for Celtic and I used to watch them. This fixture hasn’t lost anything in Scotland but maybe the rest of the world doesn’t see it the same way.
“(But) it is a special game and you can feel it building up during the week. You can sense that something extra but when you walk out for the warm-up it’s just like a normal game. We want to win this trophy, though.
“It’s an amazing feeling when you win against Rangers, however, because it means so much to the supporters and everyone else. It’s the best feeling there is.”
This is Rangers’ last chance to stop Celtic making history.
The last two derbies have been closer and yet the Ibrox men remain without a win in nine games.
Read more: Graeme Murty: Margins between Rangers & Celtic are smaller than ever ahead of Old Firm clash
On that theme, Lustig claims Rangers, 13 points behind the Ladbrokes Premiership leaders, have taken only a “small step” towards closing the gap on the Parkhead side.
He said: “They have been struggling a bit and they have tried everything to take new players in and make them a better team so of course it seems they have maybe taken a small step.
“Last season we were 30 points ahead of them and it is not that amount right now.
“If you look at it that way, they have maybe become a little bit closer but we have the chance to win a treble but we are still not really happy with the way we have been playing this season.
“We know we can do better. If we look to ourselves as well, we feel we can play better.”
Lustig also believes the 3-2 win over Rangers at Ibrox in the Ladbrokes Premiership clash last month, when the visitors came back from behind twice and finished the game with 10 men, will give the Celtic players added confidence.
He said: “It is massive, the way things happened in the game.
“They probably thought they had a really good chance to win it and we go down one man and still win, it is really good for us.
“Of course they haven’t won in a bit against us so they probably saw the opportunity.”
Brendan Rodgers has only one personnel issue going into the game.
He said:”We have to keep an eye on Stuart Armstrong and see how he is. He’s got a slight knock on his calf but apart from that they are all back and available.”
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