Key questions as Celtic host Rangers with title in sight

Scottish Premiership: Celtic v Rangers

Venue: Celtic Park, Glasgow When: Sunday, 16 March Time: 12:30 GMT

Coverage: Follow live audio and text coverage on BBC Sounds, Radio Scotland and the BBC Sport website & app

Celtic welcome Rangers for the fourth meeting of the Glasgow giants this season with the chance to take another step towards the Scottish Premiership title.

Brendan Rodgers' side know if they win, they will be just two wins from glory. Barry Ferguson's Rangers - in the interim manager's first derby in charge - must go again after Thursday's epic Europa League success over Fenerbahce.

As ever, the game is riven with sub-plots, though. BBC Scotland commentator Liam McLeod talks us through them...

Barry Ferguson faced Celtic 39 times as a Rangers player, many of them as captain, and loved nothing more than the heat of the battle between Glasgow's big two.

Now he gets ready for his dug-out bow against his great rivals.

And having got the better of Jose Mourinho and Fenerbahce in the Europa League, he prepares to pit his wits against the man with the best Old Firm winning ratio in the history of the fixture.

Nobody has a better success percentage in this game as a manager than Brendan Rodgers, who has only lost two of his 21 games against Rangers.

Of course, one of those defeats came the last time the sides clashed as the hosts ran out 3-0 winners over the champions at Ibrox at the start of January.

That victory was as stirring as it was inconsequential for then manager Phillipe Clement. It was the Belgian's solitary win over Celtic and, whilst it was an impressive performance, there remained a chasm of 11 points in its wake.

That gap has grown to 16 since then and there remains the metaphorical length of the River Clyde between the two teams right now.

Rodgers also prevailed on penalties in December's League Cup final against Rangers.

Celtic can just about see the chequered flag. Win this one and they need just two more victories, at home to Hearts and at St Johnstone.

If so, they would have title number 55 and their 13th in 14 seasons signed and sealed before the league splits.

For Rodgers, the emergence of Daizen Maeda from the shadows of former team-mate Kyogo Furuhashi has been spectacular.

The Japanese forward has hit the net 27 times. For context, Kyogo's best in a season was 34, whilst the tireless Maeda has also weighed in with nine assists this term.

You would imagine there will be more.

Rangers will not miss Kyogo, given he scored eight goals against them during his time at Parkhead, but the fact is that Celtic have barely missed him themselves and Maeda is the reason.

He is surely a shoo-in for the player of the year accolades.

When asked about the prospect of facing Athletic Bilbao in the quarter-finals of the Europa League, Ferguson insisted he could not yet peer that far into the future.

The interim Rangers manager admitted his concern is getting enough out a squad that became embroiled in an energy-sapping penalty win on Thursday.

The fact they played 120 minutes before the see-saw shoot-out will have exerted the Ibrox side physically, but it was a mentally tiring evening as well with Ferguson still doing post-match media duties not long before midnight.

This will be a major test of their powers of recovery if they are to trouble a Celtic side that will have had a full week to prepare.

Top scorer Cyriel Dessers and Mohamed Diomande were withdrawn well before the end on Thursday but Rangers' most important game this week was that date with Fenerbahce.

What remains of their season rested on emerging from that tie given how far back they are in the Premiership and the fact both cup competitions have escaped them.

However, this is a Celtic-Rangers game and for supporters of both, it remains of huge importance regardless of how much is at stake in the wider picture.

Rangers' wins in the east end of the city have been a rarity - it has not happened since Conor Goldson's double saw them record back-to-back wins at Parkhead in 2020.

Just twice in their last 20 visits have they left celebrating, something that dates back to 2010 and they will hope that Celtic captain Callum McGregor's troublesome calf prevents him from taking part in this fixture for a 43rd time.

McGregor relishes these games just as much as Ferguson did and if he doesn't make it it would improve the visitors' chances of upsetting the odds, as they did in Europe.

However, with or without their influential captain, Celtic can smell the title and are in the mood for a party with away fans in attendance for the first time since 2023.

That could spell trouble for a Rangers side that may be running on empty.