O’Neill wary of wounded Rangers
But the Parkhead boss is certain the Rangers players will still be relishing tomorrow’s big Glasgow showdown at Parkhead. O’Neill insisted: ‘‘I personally don’t believe that it will have any bearing at all on this match. It’s a one-off game and I know from my own experience that these games mean a lot to the players.
‘‘Last season when we played them in November we had just played in Valencia, which was a very difficult game, and despite doing all the travelling we came back to play Rangers and won the game.
‘‘So I don’t think that will have any bearing on the match. In Old Firm games the form of even 15 minutes ago goes out the window so they won’t have a problem getting up for this one.
‘‘They will get spurred on for this and will be looking forward to it as we will ourselves.’’
The fact that Rangers went out after 120 gruelling minutes has also given the champions the upper hand as they look to overall a one-point deficit at the top of the Scottish Premier League.
In contrast O’Neill rested a clutch of first-team stars as they safely secured their passage into the second round with a 2-0 win in Lithuania to secure a 10-1 aggregate win over FK Suduva.
But he dismissed the tiredness factor too, insisting that the occasion will give the players an extra spring in their step.
‘‘Well you can judge it in any way you want after Sunday,’’ added O’Neill. ‘‘But I don’t believe that players feel tired for an Old Firm game.
‘‘They might feel tired during the game at times and in the Scottish Cup final we felt pretty tired even though we deserved to get beaten.
‘‘We got beaten fairly and squarely and some people said it was a game too far, but this is a new season for us.
‘‘It’s a great match without any doubt and some matches surpass your expectations and some never live up to it at all, but the atmosphere is great and the players respond to that every time.’’
That Scottish Cup final - coupled with the CIS Insurance Cup - gave Rangers some revenge for missing out on the championship. It also kept Alex McLeish’s record of not losing an Old Firm game intact - but O’Neill is not fed up with talk of an Indian sign.
‘‘I can’t even start to tell you what I have been fed up with,’’ he joked. ‘‘But that’s not one of them.
‘‘That doesn’t matter to me. Not to have lost against Rangers in two seasons in the league shows we have got our own record to protect and I would love to win this game and be in front on Sunday.’’
But deep down the cunning Celtic boss knows that he would rather be in his position than that of his Ibrox counterpart.
O’Neill is set to pile the agony on Rangers when he unleashes his freshened big guns.
Henrik Larsson, Chris Sutton, Neil Lennon, Paul Lambert, Stilian Petrov, Bobo Balde, Ulrik Laursen, Robert Douglas and Joos Valgaeren were rested for Thursday’s UEFA Cup win over FK Suduva while Steve Guppy also remained in Glasgow to have treatment on a back injury.
They are all ready to return for the first Old Firm game of the season while Alan Thompson and Jackie McNamara are winning their battles to
recover from ankle and leg problems respectively.
Rangers’ Dutch defender Ronald de Boer is doubtful. The Dutchman picked up a knee injury against Dundee United last Saturday and although he took part in Thursday night’s UEFA Cup tie against Viktoria Zizkov and scored twice, it could now ironically cost him his place against Celtic.
Defenders Lorenzo Amoruso and Craig Moore were involved in clashes against the Czech Republic side but both should be fit for the visit to Parkhead.
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