The air at Celtic Park crackled with anticipation as Glasgow’s fiercest football rivalry reignited on January 3, 2026. The Old Firm derby, always a tempestuous affair, took on fresh significance this season: for the first time in decades, neither Celtic nor Rangers entered the clash atop the Scottish Premiership. Instead, Heart of Midlothian sat three points clear, with both Glasgow giants desperate to keep their title hopes alive and avoid falling further adrift at the halfway mark.
All eyes were on Wilfried Nancy, Celtic’s newly appointed manager, who found himself under intense scrutiny just weeks into his tenure. Since stepping in for interim boss Martin O’Neill in early December, Nancy had endured a rough baptism—five defeats in his first seven matches, including a stinging 2-0 loss at Motherwell only days before the derby. The pressure was palpable, with supporters voicing their frustration and the media questioning whether the Frenchman could weather the storm.
“The board is with me, the club is with me, and the players are with me,” Nancy declared in a passionate pre-match press conference. “As you know, I need time. Give me time and you’re going to see what I do. You can already see what I did before because I didn’t start yesterday.” His candor was striking: “I’m going to be a liar if I say, ‘everything is happy, everything is good.’ No, it’s not the case, but I knew that before. That’s why I’m calm during all the questions you ask me. I’m not pleased to hear people don’t like me, but they have the right to say it because in terms of results, this is not what we want.”
For Nancy, the context mattered. He pointed out he’d had only 13 training sessions with his squad—barely a fraction of a typical four-week pre-season. Celtic’s campaign had already been turbulent: after Brendan Rodgers’ resignation in late October, O’Neill had briefly steadied the ship with seven wins from eight, restoring some goodwill. But Nancy’s arrival saw a shift in tactics, moving away from O’Neill’s 4-3-3 to a more flexible 3-4-3 system. The adjustment period, he insisted, was ongoing. “It’s totally normal my players need a bit of time and are confused at certain moments,” Nancy explained. “It’s a process. I don’t like the word ‘process’ because people think I am going to hide behind ‘process’, but it’s true.”
He didn’t shy away from the criticism. “Judge me, no problem, but have a look at the games since I have been here and analyse if we should have won or lost. Do it. I am a clear guy. For the moment, I cannot talk because results are not good enough. I shut my mouth and I take it, but I know where we are going. After that, if it’s going to work or not, I don’t know. We are going to do everything to do it and I am here for that. Yes, I want to win every game. Yes, I want to win titles. I want to create a legacy here. I am going to die for this club, for sure.”
Coming into derby day, Celtic sat three points behind Hearts and just ahead of Rangers, who themselves had been resurgent under manager Danny Rohl with three wins in their last four league outings. Rohl, too, was relatively new to the Old Firm cauldron, having only a single previous derby—an earlier defeat in the Premier Sports Cup semi-final—to his name.
The stakes were sky-high. Celtic needed a victory to draw level with Hearts, though a seven-goal margin was required to seize first place outright. Rangers, meanwhile, could leapfrog their rivals with a win, thrusting themselves back into title contention after a sluggish start to the campaign that saw them win just eight of their first 18 league matches. The last time neither Glasgow giant led the league at this stage was over 40 years ago—a statistic that added a layer of urgency and perhaps a hint of desperation to the proceedings.
As kickoff approached, the atmosphere inside Celtic Park was electric. Fans from both sides packed the stands, the tension palpable, the rivalry as fierce as ever. Even London music star Stormzy was spotted among the crowd, a testament to the enduring pull of this storied fixture.
The first half was a showcase of high-octane football and nervy moments. Celtic pressed their advantage, with Kenny and Yang both going close to doubling their side’s lead. Rangers, for their part, looked shaky in possession, with goalkeeper Jack Butland called upon repeatedly to keep the deficit at one. Fernandez’s heroic clearance off the line and Butland’s sharp reflexes were the only things preventing Celtic from running away with it. At the other end, Peter Schmeichel—now donning the Celtic kit—produced a crucial save to deny Gassama, preserving the slender lead.
Live updates from the ground confirmed the halftime score: Celtic 1, Rangers 0. The hosts had dominated much of the play, but the margin remained precariously narrow. The match was far from settled, and with so much at stake in the title race, neither side could afford to slip up in the second half.
For Nancy, the derby was more than just three points—it was a chance to silence doubters and prove that his vision for Celtic could bear fruit. “I suffer,” he confessed earlier in the week. “Not the criticism, because that’s part of my job. I suffer that I know that if [a player] gets in this position, we can outplay the opposition, but he is not ready to do it. I attack in different ways, but my players need time to understand what I want to do. You don’t win, you get killed. You win, OK.”
He was quick to reject suggestions that his tactics were to blame for the team’s defensive frailties. “I want you to understand that I don’t play with a back five,” Nancy insisted. “The way we defend most of the time this is a back four, or it could be a back three. When you play the back four, sometimes you can have a back five or back six, so for me this is useless to talk about that. I never said that I am a back-five guy. I never said that. I play with a back four. I play with a back three. I play with a back two. This is only the beginning. I want to see certain things and after that I will analyse.”
As the second half loomed, both managers faced pivotal decisions. Would Nancy’s tactical tweaks finally pay off, or would Rangers find a way to punish Celtic’s lingering vulnerabilities? For the supporters, the nerves were as raw as ever—every pass, every challenge, every shot on goal carrying the weight of history and hope.
With the action ongoing and the score delicately poised at 1-0 in Celtic’s favor, the Old Firm derby remains wide open. The result could shape the course of the title race, but for now, the drama continues to unfold under the bright lights of Celtic Park, where legends are made and dreams can be dashed in an instant.
