CYRIEL Dessers has expressed confidence Rangers can beat Celtic at Parkhead after the top six split and increase their chances of lifting the Scottish title this season.
And the Nigerian striker admitted he is desperate to open his Old Firm account in the Glasgow rivals next encounter after having a goal disallowed at Ibrox on Sunday.
Philippe Clement’s side fought back to draw 3-3 with Brendan Rodgers’ team in a classic derby match in Govan and remain a point behind their city rivals in the cinch Premiership with a game in hand.
They can go two points clear at the top of the table with six fixtures remaining if they defeat sixth-placed Dundee at Dens Park – where they won 5-0 back in November – on Wednesday night.
READ MORE: Major Rangers vs Celtic calls assessed by Ref Watch
The defending champions, who have not lost a meaningful league game to Rangers since the August of 2021, will be favourites to win at Celtic Park because the 60,000-strong crowd will not have any away fans in it.
But Dessers, who played in the 2-1 defeat which Clement’s men suffered in the East End back in December, was encouraged by the Viaplay Cup winners’ resolve at the weekend and believes they are capable of crossing the River Clyde and taking all three points.
Asked if he thought Rangers were capable of beating Celtic at Parkhead, he said: “Yeah, definitely. We showed today we can score three goals against a good team and also in the previous two games, obviously we lost, but I don’t think it was fully deserved.
“I think I can sit here and speak for the team, speak for Rangers, and say we have to have a positive feeling. If we can come back like that in a big game like that with the pressure full on then it says a lot about the team and the mentality of the team.”
The £4.5m summer signing thought he had scored a second-half equaliser for Rangers against Celtic at Ibrox on Sunday – but his close-range strike was ruled out by referee John Beaton after a VAR check showed that his team mate Tom Lawrence had fouled Tomoki Iwata in the build-up.
READ MORE: A classic encounter - but Old Firm 'title decider' decided nothing
Asked if he thought he had scored his first Old Firm goal, Dessers said: “Yeah, I thought so and I celebrated as well. So I had a little taste of the feeling.
“But I was unlucky because it got chalked off. I heard it was a foul which was unlucky for me and for the team in that moment. But we bounced back.”
“But I am getting closer all the time so hopefully the next game would be a very good moment to score my first Old Firm goal.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel