| MUMBAI:
Defending Scottish Premier League champions Celtic will hope to continue their
good form into the New Year, while their biggest rivals Rangers will look to come
out of the season-ending loss to Celtic when the two biggest Scottish football
teams start 2009 live and exclusive on Ten Sports, the most watched sports channel
in the Sub-continent. Celtic
are leading the table once again, having secured 50 points from their 20 matches,
while Rangers are seven behind at 43 from the same number of matches.
On Saturday,
January 3, Celtic will be at home to Dundee United, while Rangers will be travelling
to Inverness CT on Sunday, January 4. The Celtic-Dundee match on Ten Sports starts
7:00 pm IST, while the Inverness-Rangers tie starts 4:30 pm IST.
Dundee United
are currently placed third in the table with 34 points, while Inverness are fighting
relegation with just 17 points from 20 matches which places them 11th in the 12-team
Scottish Premier League. Rangers
will be depending on their dangerous scoring duo of Kris Boyd and Kenny Miller,
who have scored 23 (Boyd 16 and Miller 7) of the 45 Rangers goals this season.
But they will also be hoping that Dundee can cause a massive upset against Celtic.
A win for them, and Dundee, will close the gap to just four points against Celtic.
Rangers believe
they can still beat Celtic, even if that meant winning all their remaining matches
and forward Lee McCulloch echoed that view when he said: “I don’t think
it’s impossible for us to claw it back. Celtic did it to us last season.
“We
won’t stop fighting. We need everybody pulling together. We will be back
on the training ground working hard for it and believing we can get the points
back and hopefully win the title. We need big characters, but there are a lot
of personalities in that dressing-room.” But
Celtic would surely not take it easy despite the big celebration at the end of
the year when a Scott McDonald goal helped them beat arch rivals Rangers 1-0. | 