Rangers leads Celtic in the Scottish Cup final on Saturday because they have “more match-winners” and have recently defeated them in Old Firm matches, according to Johan Mjallby.
With 10 points from four derby encounters, the Swede’s previous team defeated their Glasgow rivals by eight points to win the Premiership. Rangers, who won the League Cup in December, are hoping to make it two for one against Celtic, who are trying to defend the trophy. Former Ibrox defender Arthur Numan believes his former team has to “draw a line” under their league defeat in order to turn their attention back to finishing the season strong. The 54-year-old Dutchman, who believes the Rangers “gave the league away” by dropping points at Ross County and Dundee in the course of four days in April, stated, “They need to forget what has happened in the last couple of weeks.”
The most important thing is always to win the league, but since the league cannot be changed, they must draw a line. “The cup is a very important game because we can still win the double.” After Celtic secured their third consecutive title with a strong finish, Mjallby thinks they will have “more of the momentum”. “The last two months they’ve really hit top form and when it mattered they played their best football,” stated the 53-year-old. Rangers are likely under more pressure to perfect their strategy because Celtic rarely modifies their style of play and have a great deal of success in Old Firm matches.
Even though it’s a one-off match, Celtic ought to enter full of confidence. They seem to have more game-winning players than the Rangers.
Memories of 2002 final
The final meeting between Numan and Mjallby at this stage of the competition took place in 2002. Speaking about a nail-biting 3-2 triumph, Numan remarked, “That game always brings back good memories; it was something special.” “We won the League Cup and the Scottish Cup, which put the confidence back in the team, and it was the year Alex McLeish came over from Dick Advocaat. He attempted to get the spirit back in the dressing room because there were some issues.” During his five seasons at Rangers, Numan won the trophy four times, whereas during Mjallby’s six seasons at Celtic, he only won twice.
Mjallby predicted that the opening 15 to 20 minutes of Saturday’s game at Hampden will be chaotic. “It will be intriguing to observe if Rangers apply the same tremendous pressure as Celtic. Rangers are a little bit physically stronger, but Celtic are more agile in the attack.”
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