Ally McCoist reacts to Rangers vs Celtic Scottish Cup semi-final draw
Ally McCoist can’t wait for the Scottish Cup semi-finals after Rangers were drawn against Old Firm rivals Celtic in Monday night’s draw.
The Bears secured their path to the semis thanks to a dominant 3-0 win over Dundee on Sunday night, and were joined in the next round when Celtic beat Dundee United on Monday by the same scoreline.
Now they’ll face each other for a place in the final on the weekend of April 16/17, meaning three Old Firm derbies in six weeks and McCoist told talkSPORT [March 15, 6:10] he can’t wait.
“Wow, brilliant,” he said. “That’ll be three in a month, or three in six weeks anyway. It’ll be brilliant.”
Co-host Alan Brazil then joked with McCoist that they could suffer back-to-back defeats in the Scottish Premiership and then get eliminated in the cup by their fierce rivals.
“That would be worst-case scenario [laughs],” McCoist responded.
Huge
Rangers haven’t won a domestic cup since way back in 2011 and if they’re going to do it this year then they need to be at their very best between now and the end of the season.
They’re currently chasing Celtic down in the title race, trailing by three points, and look likely to make it into the Europa League quarter-finals after a first leg 3-0 win over Red Star last week.
The Scottish Cup will now provide a big chance to either really turn the pressure up in the title race, or get some revenge back against the opposition if it’s out of their hands by then.
McCoist knows all about the rivalry, having scored a club-record 355 goals with 27 of them coming against in Old Firm derbies.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s record against Celtic isn’t great having lost his only derby as a manager so far, but he will have more than enough chance to set that straight in this six-week period.
In other Rangers news, View: Midfield decision on cards, GvB to make four changes – Rangers predicted XI v Red Star