Celtic fans are pleased to see both Daizen Maeda and James Forrest in the from the off.

Dave: No surprise on the line-up, if Celtic’s front six show up it’ll be a home win.

Imran: Very happy both Daizen Maeda & James Forrest are playing. James Tavernier won’t be best pleased and I can see Jamesy scoring today as well.

Ian: Love to see Daizen Maeda and James Forrest both starting.

Robbie: The line-up most expected for Celtic today. Expect Tomoki Iwata to come on during the late stages, to stamp out any Rangers fires. He’s been pivotal in some of these games in the past as a substitute. The most important starters for Celtic? Carter-Vickers, McGregor and Hatate. Prediction: Celtic 2 Rangers 0.

Rangers manager Philippe Clement on Sportsound: "It's a big game. Before this season everyone would have signed to play a game in this situation, a few months ago also.

"We can make a really big step forward. For the title race, you stay in it with a draw. But of course an Old Firm is also a must-win and that is the clear message to the players. We never play for a draw.

"To be honest I didn't have too many big choices to make today. A few. But we have a lot of injuries. It's logical to play with John [Souttar] and Ben [Davies]. And Ben showed in the last game his capacity.

"He was unlucky the last few months with a big injury. This is a really good place to show his quality."

Clement adds the decision to start Tom Lawrence over Todd Cantwell was the "most difficult" choice he had to make.

His aim is to turn the title race "upside down".

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Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers tells BBC Scotland: "We've suffered a lot with injuries throughout the season, at the right time it's starting to come together.

"I think we arrive into the game in a really good moment. That's all based around hard work and pushing as hard as we can

"It's a fantastic occasion, these games are amazing to be involved in. Ultimately, you want to perform well and that's the key message for us.

"You miss these moments when you're away, it was one of a number of key factors to come back. As the Celtic manager, you can affect how people feel in their daily life.

"These games are so important, hopefully we can serve the supporters well.

"In the big games, the players come alive. We'll need that today again."

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Kheredine Idessane
BBC Scotland at Celtic Park

No Rangers team has celebrated a win here at Celtic Park since Connor Goldson's double in the Covid times of 2020.

For Philippe Clement's men to change that, all of their big players need to put in their best work.

Can Cyriel Dessers be clinical with any chances that come his way?

Will Fabio Silva deliver the type of performance that tempted Wolves to spend over £30m on him a few years back?

Can James Tavernier contain the pace, energy and pester power of Daizen Maeda, while fizzing in his trademark top quality set pieces?

Tom Lawrence can score big goals, spectacular goals. They'll all be required, you sense, to contain Celtic's strongest starting XI who'll have one hand on the title with another home win today.

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Kheredine Idessane
BBC Scotland at Celtic Park

Brendan Rodgers took charge of his first derby in September 2016, when a Moussa Dembele hat-trick helped see off Mark Warburton's Rangers 5-1.

James Forrest started and Callum McGregor came off the bench. Five Rangers managers later, Brendan Rodgers is about to take charge of his 17th derby, now in his second spell in Glasgow.

He's only lost one in that time, to Steven Gerrard in Govan when Ryan Jack scored the only goal of the game.

The aggregate score in the derbies across the Northern Irishman's time? A huge 37-11 in Celtic's favour.

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Tom English
BBC Scotland's chief sports writer on Sportsound

Rangers had the destination of the title in their own hands.

I think they've blown it. I don't think they'll win today.

They've created this situation for themselves by being mentally weak in the games against Dundee and Ross County.

Everything is stacked against them. Their record against Celtic is really poor.

Kyogo Furuhashi has scored seven goals in 12 games against Rangers, including two this season.

It's not been a stellar campaign for the striker by his own lofty standards but he's still managed 18 goals, with two against Hearts last weekend.

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James Tavernier has scored Rangers' last three goals at Celtic Park - across two defeats.

The Ibrox captain has been directly involved in six of Rangers’ last 10 league goals against Celtic (five goals, one assist).

His 10 goal involvements (six goals, four assists) in Premierhip derbies since Rangers’ promotion in 2016 is the joint-most of any player - level with Odsonne Edouard.

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Celtic are looking for a fourth successive home win in this famous fixture but have not gone unbeaten in league derbies since 2017-18.

Celtic won the first two derbies of the season.

Kyogo scored the only goal at Ibrox in early September and he was on target again when the defending champions prevailed 2-1 at home at the end of last year.

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We had a goal inside the first 30 seconds and a stunning stoppage-time equaliser.

In between, there were four more goals on a day of high drama at Ibrox.

Celtic led 2-0 and 3-2 but the points were shared in a game for the ages.

More of the same please.

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Brendan Rodgers has good reason to enjoy this fixture since his record is remarkable.

In 16 derbies, he's won 12 and only been on the losing side once.

After moving six points clear with a good win over Hearts last weekend, Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers asserted that his side "can have a bit of fun" in today's derby.

He also spoke about hard work and the importance of planning, but that didn't make any headlines.

Philippe Clement wasn't best pleased with the remarks, but Rodgers brushed off any suggestion of disrespect.

"I have never referred to these games other than being intense, being competitive," he said on Friday.

"I love it. It’s one of the reasons I am here, the great pride and privilege I have in managing Celtic in a Rangers game. So the whole emotion, the whole feeling around this game is absolutely amazing."

Right, we want to hear what you make of the starting line-ups.

Celtic fans, are you happy to see Daizen Maeda and James Forrest both stating? Let us know here.

And Rangers supporters, are you feeling about the team? What do you make of Todd Cantwell's absence, and the inclusion of Ben Davies? Get in touch here.

Rangers last won at Celtic Park in October 2020 in what was the first Old Firm encounter without a crowd during the dark days of Covid.

Today there will be 60,000 home supporters, with zero away fans.

"I think, in a way, the more they're going to boo, the stronger my team is going to get," said Philippe Clement.

"Football is a little bit like the gladiators of the modern age."

Not everyone reckons this is a must-win for the visitors.

When asked yesterday if he thought victory was necessary to maintain title hopes, Rangers manager Philippe Clement responded: "I don't totally agree with that.

"If you have a draw, you still can become champions. Even if you lose but that's a really, really long shot and too long a shot for me.

"We go full for the three points, that's clear and doing that you can make an incredible comeback and you can make a really big statement."

Asked the same question, goalkeeper Jack Butland went with the must-win answer.

Billy Dodds
Former Rangers striker on BBC Sportsound

You get the feeling there's a lot against Rangers coming into this game, but they can't hand it to Celtic.

They're missing key players. Their form has improved in recent weeks, but the results against Dundee and Ross County put question marks on them.

They need to manufacture a result and keep this title race alive.

I've got a feeling this won't be as straightforward as some people think.

Referee Willie Collum takes charge of an Old Firm derby for the tenth time.

His first came in 2010 and his last was in April 2022.

He was meant to do the Scottish Cup semi-final last season but did himself some mischief in the warm-up.

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Leon Balogun has not recovered from a back injury sustained in last weekend's 4-1 win over Kilmarnock and, with Connor Goldson also sidelined, that means a first start in five months for Rangers centre-half Ben Davies.

The only other change is Tom Lawrence taking Todd Cantwell's place in midfield.

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Brendan Rodgers makes just one change to the Celtic side that breezed past Hearts last weekend.

There's been plenty of pre-match chatter asking whether Daizen Maeda and James Forrest can both start in the same side, and the manager believes they can.

Maeda replaces Nicolas Kuhn in the starting XI, but it remains to be seen which flank the wingers play on.

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