“Everything rides on these games, and players understand that,” Callum McGregor

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The Celtic Star

·1 maggio 2025

“Everything rides on these games, and players understand that,” Callum McGregor

A Glasgow Derby at Ibrox? “It is a perfect game for us after winning the league,” Callum McGregor believes…

Callum McGregor of Celtic celebrates scoring the opening goal during the Scottish Gas Scottish Cup Semi Final match between St Johnstone and Celtic at Hampden Park on April 20, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Having been a course and distance trophy winner on so many occasions, the Celtic captain could end his own career as the most decorated Celtic of all time. That would depend on playing on for a season or so longer than his great pal James Forrest.

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There’s no significance in terms of adding to that pairs massive trophy haul, they have fifty winners medals between them, but both realise that the significance of winning the Glasgow Derby is not diminished in any way whatsoever with the title already won. Celtic have a uncatchable 17 points lead and a win on Sunday takes it to 20 and would open up a significant gap for the world to see.

And having lost the previous two Glasgow Derbies – the only other time that has happened to McGregor was during the Covid season when it was training ground football with no fans present. The idea of losing three in a row to theRangers is unthinkable, given that the terrible form that theRangers are in playing at Ibrox.

“We’ve got four really good games still to go, plus Scottish Cup Final”

“We’ve got four really good games still to go, plus Scottish Cup Final,” Callum McGregor said via STV. “So that’ll keep us focused and motivated, and we want to arrive in the Cup Final in the best possible way, so we can enjoy being champions, but we know what’s riding on the game at the weekend as well. We want to put it right after what happened in the last one. So, yeah, it’s the perfect game for us.

Callum McGregor of Celtic celebrates at full time during the SPL | Premier League match between Dundee United FC and Celtic FC at Tannadice Park on April 26, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

“Hopefully we can go and set the record straight”

“I think we always have a point to prove, but I think especially when you lose a derby game, then it hurts even more and everything that goes with that, the media stuff around it. So, we want to try and answer that as quickly as we can, and obviously Sunday gives us a chance to do that, and hopefully we can go and set the record straight from our point of view.

“When you lose a game like that, and then when you lose it at home, it’s not happened to us too many times. So, you then feel it. You feel the gravity of the situation, and you want to put it right as quickly as you can.

“We know what needs to be done and the job we want to do”

“This is the first game since then, and we have everything to play for, so the players will understand that. We’ll have a good week’s training, and we intend to go and win the game. We know what needs to be done and the job we want to do. I think that’s the nature of playing football in Scotland and Glasgow. You can only have one team that’s doing well, and that’s the optics of it.

PFA Scotland POTY Nominees. Callum McGregor is among the four nominees alongside Simon Murray from Dundee FC, Daizen Maeda and Nicolas Kuhn. Photo PFA Scotland.

“That’s the bit you need to live with, and you have to understand it as well. Celtic could finish the season with three trophies, and if we lose the game on Sunday, then people will interpret it as being a bad season, and that’s a bit silly, but it’s part of what you have to live with being a player for Celtic or (the)Rangers. Everything rides on these games, and players understand that.

“We’ve suffered in the last couple, so we want to try and put the record straight”

“We’ve suffered in the last couple, so we want to try and put the record straight from our point of view. That’s the reality of football in Scotland, and it verges on being silly at times, and if that’s the case, then so be it, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that that’s what some people think,” the Celtic captain said.

Callum McGregor. Man of the Match at Hampden in the Scottish Cup semi-final win over St Johnstone.

“In football, you can’t please everyone, but you want to try and you want to prove as many doubters wrong as possible and that’s the bit that the players enjoy as well, so we know it’s riding on the game and we have to try and do everything we can and if we don’t get the result, then it’s no because we haven’t done our job, so that’s the bit I’m trying to get at, is we want to give a good account of ourselves and if we can go win the game, brilliant.

“If not, then at least we’ve given a really strong account of ourselves and something’s happened that’s been out of our control.”

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