Why Celtic have more to lose than Rangers in Viaplay Cup final - but fan behaviour could be costly to both

There are more streams of intrigue traversing the imminent Viaplay Cup final meeting of Celtic and Rangers than to be found in a river of twisty Nextflix box sets.

Percolate them down, though, and an inescapable fact is brewed. Never mind the old line about to victor the spoils. If that victor at Hampden next Sunday is not Ange Postecoglou’s side, then the impression formed of them as an unimpeachable force will be well and truly spoiled. The result-based form of the Glasgow rivals may be identical going into their eagerly-anticipated showpiece at the national stadium. There the similarities between the two teams would appear to end. As a consequence, everything would seem to point to Celtic snaring the first silverware of the season. And potentially doing so in the most comprehensive of fashions.

The runaway league leaders’ fusing of fluidity, flair and ferocity has so disorientated opponents of late, these poor unfortunates haven’t been able to find the glove, never mind lay it on them. Eight straight victories have been racked up through averaging three goals per outing, while their defences have been breached only twice. For an overall domestic record of 29 wins, a draw and a defeat from 31 outings. BBC pundit Michael Stewart merely articulated a commonly-held belief the other week when he stated that the intensity underpinning Postecoglou’s men play meant they were “streets ahead” of the rest of Scottish football. All too much of this taking the form of anaemic opposition in the Premiership most weeks. The depressing low standard of the top flight - the drop off alarming since the pandemic, which is another treatise for another time - undoubtedly is a factor in their lording over the domain. That, though, also makes Rangers the one real test of their considerable capabilities. So considerable, indeed, a first treble for their Australian manager - and a fifth for the club in five years - is practically regarded as a fait accompli.

An impression formed in spite of the laudable rehabilitation of the Ibrox side’s competitiveness performed by Michael Beale across his three months in charge. His team remain very much a work in progress. As he is forever the first to acknowledge. It is bordering on the remarkable, then, that the 42-year-old has overseen a run of 10 wins and a draw from his first 11 league matches. For context, only once - with 15 straight successes in their undefeated title-snaring romp in 2020-21 - have they accrued more points from such a sequence since their top flight promotion in 2016. Even all the more remarkable when there have been a number of stodgy and unconvincing performances across Beale’s time at the helm. So much so that, at times, scrambled-wins-are-us could have become the Ibrox club’s motto.

Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou is fully expected to stay ahead of his Rangers counterpart Michael Beale when their teams confront one another in next Sunday's Viaplay Cup final - which brings its own pressures. (Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group)

Of course, all of the aforementioned could have been laid out before Beale faced off for the first time as Postecoglou’s equal in the new year derby at Ibrox. It was predicted then that Celtic would slap down their ancient adversaries, give them a real sore one, and bring an abrupt halt to the mini-revival the new Rangers manager was then effecting. Instead, it was the champions that came close to leaving the Govan ground with stinging chops. A curious summation has been adopted by the Celtic support over the events of that afternoon. The 87th equaliser to claim them a 2-2 draw - notably not preceded by any real sustained pressure that suggested the face saver was inevitability - to them demonstrated Rangers couldn’t even best their team even when they were so obviously well below par. Yet, the Ibrox men themselves hardly believed they succeeded in hitting any great heights for concerted spells.

The fact this was the case but still they proved the side that looked the more likely to rustle up a win didn’t alter perceptions of Celtic as generally a class apart from their bitter rivals. And beyond the unyielding demands of their own followers, Rangers are not burdened by any serious expectations that they will be able to avoid their finals foes illustrating the talent and technical imbalances between the duo at Hampden in a week. Say they happened to confound the forecasts, though. Such a scenario would demand, no question, significant reassessment of Celtic’s standing in a domain they are considered to own. That places a heavy pressure on Postecoglou’s men and, conversely, offers an enticing opportunity for their opponents. All of which adds up to one fascinating and delicious prospect of a final.

When these two tribes go to war at Hampden there is also a fearsome aspect, though, that should never be brushed over. The 50-50 supporter split seems to bring out the very worst in their fanbases, encouraging them to vent in fashions as offensive to the other - and unwelcome to the rest of us - as they can muster. We can expect, then, that conflicts across the ages in Ireland will be fought in songs celebrating the IRA and the UDA and that sectarian epithets that involve the terms Fenian and Orange - proxy words for Catholic and Protestant, in the settled view of the courts - will noxiously fill the air in Glasgow’s southside. Then there is the possibility of anti-Irish Catholic racism being expressed, child abuse being weaponised with glee, and the deaths of Rangers and Celtic figures, and recent passings of the Pope Emeritus and the Queen, being gloried in. However much you experience this toxicity, it never stops being astonishing - and despair-inducing, utterly so - that these behaviours are stitched into the fabric of Scotland’s supposedly greatest sporting spectacle.