CELTIC manager Martin O'Neill has said his side will keep fighting to retain the Scottish Premiership title as they prepare to face Rangers this afternoon.
Both sides trail Hearts, who beat Aberdeen 1-0 at Tynecastle on Saturday to extend their lead over second-place Rangers to seven points, with Celtic nine points adrift of the leaders in third.
O'Neill was confident going into the game, having won 1-0 at Stuttgart in the second leg of their Europa League Knockout Round Playoff tie on Thursday, albeit losing the tie 4-2.
However, some pre-match comments from the Celtic boss and his Rangers counterpart Danny Rohl will surely add some extra spice to what was already a crucial meeting.
The Celtic boss suggested Rohl should focus on his own team after the German questioned Celtic's performance and team selection.
In his pre-match press conference, the Celtic manager was told Rohl had said he was surprised Celtic didn't try to push on and win the tie with Stuttgart after going 1-0 up early on in Germany.
Rohl also questioned Celtic midfielder Luke McCowan's comments that on their day, no one can compete with the Hoops and the Rangers boss also brought up the issue of Celtic's goalkeeper debate.
Viljami Sinsalo kept a clean sheet in Germany on Thursday after replacing first-choice keeper Kasper Schmeichel, who has come under fire from some fans over his recent performances.
The 24-year-old Finn has ultimately been given the nod for today's clash, with the Danish stalwart not even on the bench.
'Absolutely extraordinary' comments
Speaking to reporters about Rohl's comments on the goalkeeping issue, O’Neill said: "He's picking our team? Well done old Danny, well done.
"He's only in less than a year himself, he'll soon know all about it in the next four or five years.
"I must sit down here and see if I can find out maybe if he might have a choice of some players and maybe I could put my oar in there and find out what he's doing.
"Sorry, I have to laugh — he's had a comment about our team, as in the picking of the team? Extraordinary, absolutely extraordinary.
"He hasn't been in Glasgow long."
O'Neill added: "There's no need for him to be commenting on my team or our side.
"I think he possesses a very, very decent team over there.
"It's going to be tough for us to try and get a result but regardless we're still fighting."
'We never lost confidence'
O’Neill doesn't believe his side lack confidence going into today's game, despite the 4-1 first leg defeat at home to Stuttgart last week and the subsequent 2-1 league loss at home to Hibs.
The Hoops sit third after a tumultuous season, albeit with a game in hand over Rangers and two over Hearts, but the manager believes his side are well capable of winning at Ibrox and can take heart from Thursday's win in Germany.
"I don't think we ever lost confidence," he said.
"I seem to be debating this point but we got beaten last Thursday in the game here at home.
"I never thought it was 4-1, although the fourth goal probably in many aspects knocked it beyond us.
"It didn't seem like that after we'd scored early on and there was a last-ditch tackle on [Daizen] Maeda just about four, five minutes later so it could've been 2-0 at that stage but it was a tough ask.
"It always was but we played really well in the game.
"If you think we maybe lost a bit of confidence from the Hibs game — which I don't think we did — it was restored after last night's performance [in the win over Stuttgart]."
A win for Celtic at Ibrox is vital for their title ambitions, as a defeat would leave them nine points behind leaders Hearts with only one game in hand over the table-toppers.
Similarly, Rangers will also be desperate for the three points, as even a draw will leave the Light Blues six adrift of Hearts having played the same number of games.
O'Neill, who last managed Celtic in a league derby almost 21 years ago, led the Hoops to a 3-1 extra-time win over Rohl's Rangers in the Scottish League Cup semi-final last November.
Today's game kicks off at Ibrox at 12pm GMT, with coverage in Ireland and Britain on Sky Sports Main Event.
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