Callum McGregor on quest to ensure Celtic always deliver on the big occasion

Celtic captain Callum McGregor is on a quest to ensure they always deliver on the big occasion as the Hoops bid to continue their recent domination over their city rivals.

Celtic ended 2024 with three trophies and just two defeats – against Hearts and Borussia Dortmund – and their performances against Rangers were a crucial aspect of that success.

The William Hill Premiership champions beat their city rivals in both of 2024’s major domestic finals and have now gone seven derby games unbeaten.

Their only defeat against Rangers in 14 matches came after they had already clinched the 2023 title.

McGregor said: “We want to win every game, especially when the big ones come around, you want to win them as well.

“That’s where you’re judged. You’re judged on these games. You’re judged on the success rate of these games.

“That’s where we want to be as a squad when we arrive into the big moments. I keep saying this to the players, it has to become normal for us to arrive in big moments and deliver and perform. Thursday is just another test for us.”

Rangers delivered one of their better recent derby performances in last month’s Premier Sports Cup final, drawing 3-3 before Celtic won the shootout.

McGregor admitted at Hampden that his side played “nowhere near” their usual level before showing their mentality to get over the line.

The midfielder believes Celtic will arrive at Ibrox in good form on Thursday after scoring eight goals in two matches.

“Generally, the way that we want to play is the same every week and just adding layers all the time,” he said.

“So, we’ll look at the game and see where we can be better, see where we can maybe exploit that sort of mid-pitch block from Rangers and see the combinations that we need to get through that bit of the pitch and try and cause some problems.

“The main objective is that we try and play well every week. You’re not going to reach that level all the time. But especially in cup finals, the most important thing is to come through it and win.

“And then you can always tidy up the little details and always be better when you arrive into the next game, which I think we’ve done well since that game.

“We’re sort of back to playing a wee bit quicker and aggressive runs and everything that makes us good. We’re sort of back there as well.

“So, I feel the team’s in a good way and a good rhythm. So, hopefully, we’ll go there. And yeah, obviously, we want to perform better than what we did in the cup final.

“But we want to go there and impose ourselves on the game and ultimately try and win the game.”

Rangers were buoyed by their cup final performance and other results around the Hampden game, but they dropped points against St Mirren and Motherwell last week to fall 14 points adrift of the leaders.

McGregor feels their lead will have no bearing on the encounter.

“No, never,” he said. “It’s a derby game. You want to win. So, regardless of where the standings are on the table, everybody wants to win. We want to win.

“Rangers will want to win. Both sets of supporters will want to win. So, there’s always everything on these games.

“It doesn’t matter whatever the competition is. We want to win and they’ll want to win as well. So, we have to just bring our maximum form and everything else goes out the window when you come to these games.

“It’s about performing well on the day and doing everything you can to win.”