Football betting tips: Scottish Premiership
1.75pts Callum McGregor 1+ shots on target at 11/5 (Coral, Ladbrokes)
0.75pt Callum McGregor to score anytime at 8/1 (General)
It's quite the weekend for football rivalries.
Near enough 24 hours after Millwall welcome West Ham in the Sky Bet Championship, Wolves take on West Brom, with Celtic and Rangers also kicking off their second meeting in the space of a week at the same time.
Rangers were convincing 3-0 winners at Ibrox on Sunday, a result which booked their spot in the Scottish League Cup semi-final. Celtic could only muster a single shot on target as Dan Neil's brace led Derek McInnes' side to victory.
The venue flips this time around with Parkhead playing host to a Celtic-dominated crowd. Whether or not that is an advantage based on the previous seven days is up for debate.
Being comfortably beaten in this fixture is one thing but they followed it up days later with a surprise 3-1 loss to Ferencváros in the Europa League. As the home side, Celtic were odds-on to win the game.
"No I'll not not talk to you about the thinking behind it" 😬
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) September 17, 2026
Martin O'Neill when asked on the decision to start goalkeeper Viljami Sinisalo 🧤
📺Stream live on TNT Sports & HBO Max pic.twitter.com/RdY46I1OcM
Martin O'Neill's weird and frankly condescending pre-match interview (which you can watch above) in response to a simple team news-based question can lead us to wonder whether the cracks are starting to show, but then both Celtic and Rangers find themselves under the microscope far more than others.
Yet they've lost two in a row, one of those when going off as clear favourites, with comments like that before putting in that performance cooling any potential interest from a betting perspective in them to win this one.
Rangers were also a considerably better team in a very recent meeting. Perhaps that'll spark Celtic into putting in a performance this time around but there's far more 'ifs' than there should be going into this fixture.
They'll be hoping captain CALLUM MCGREGOR can lead the charge, with his 11/5 price for 1+ SHOTS ON TARGET and 8/1 to SCORE ANYTIME both worth taking at different stakes.
McGregor found the net in the Champions League qualification defeat to LASK with only three goals in the last campaign. His shots output decreased slightly during spells under O'Neill yet the freedom is still in place to shoot if the opportunity presents itself.
Most of those are from distance but he does get into positions at the edge of the area to strike. Four of his five Premiership games this season have also delivered at least two shots.
The midfielder was also one of five Celtic players who had a shot in that loss last weekend too. Perhaps game state was a factor but he wasn't restricted to more defensive areas of the pitch.
The positive with this bet and McGregor is how often he plays the full 90 minutes. It's worth checking with your chosen bookmaker but some don't run with their 'super sub' style offers in the Scottish Premiership, particularly in the stats markets.
With Celtic needing a response given the past week, I'll side with McGregor trying to play his part.
Odds correct at 11:05 BST (18/09/26)
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