Baur insists mentality, not “beautiful football”, will decide Celtic’s derby response to Rangers

Midfielder Mika Baur believes Celtic’s response to last weekend’s heavy defeat by Rangers must be built on mindset and intensity rather than aesthetics when the Glasgow rivals meet again in the Scottish Premiership at Celtic Park.

Martin O’Neill’s side were knocked out of the League Cup last weekend after a 3-0 loss at Ibrox, a result that has sharpened focus on how Celtic approach Sunday’s derby rematch on home soil.

From hostile Ibrox to partisan Parkhead

The League Cup tie was played in front of an Ibrox crowd of around 50,000, a backdrop Baur describes as 50,000 people “against you” that Celtic “should handle”. This time, the dynamic is reversed.

Sunday’s Scottish Premiership meeting will be staged at Celtic Park, with Baur highlighting that the stadium will be packed with around 60,000 home supporters and no Rangers fans in attendance.

“You could feel it’s a special thing there [Old Firm game],” he said of last weekend’s experience at Ibrox. “It was like 50,000 people against you, you should handle that. And on Sunday it’s completely different.

“We have 60,000 on our side, so we should use that. We need everyone.

“We players will give 100 per cent on the field and we need everybody else to get that energy back and win on Sunday.”

For Celtic, the turnaround from a knockout defeat to a high-stakes league fixture underlines the packed domestic calendar and the pressure that comes with two Old Firm games in quick succession under the same national framework administered by the Scottish Football Association.

“You will not win it with beautiful football”

Baur is clear that Celtic’s focus cannot rest solely on style. While the midfielder does not reject the club’s ambition to play attractive football, he argues that the derby at Celtic Park will hinge on the collective mindset.

“I’ve said a couple of times now, stick together again, get the energy level really, really high on Sunday,” he said.

“You will not win it with beautiful football and nice play.

“Maybe you will score through it, but you will win the game on Sunday with a mentality and with energy and that’s what everybody should bring into the match.”

Baur underlines that, in the longer view of a season, the manner of victory is quickly forgotten compared with the result itself.

“Sure you want to win. That’s the first thing and in a couple of months, no one asks how you won. You want to play attractive football, you want to do good with the ball, against the ball.”

Derby context and competitive stakes

The Old Firm rivalry sits at the centre of the domestic game in Scotland, and back-to-back meetings across two competitions carry implications beyond the immediate emotion of the fixture.

The League Cup exit to Rangers removes one potential trophy from Celtic’s season. Sunday’s Scottish Premiership encounter, by contrast, feeds directly into the league campaign governed by the Scottish Professional Football League, where points gained or lost in head-to-head games between the two Glasgow clubs can shape the balance of a title race over time.

With another derby arriving so soon after a 3-0 defeat, Celtic face a test not only of tactical adjustment but of resilience. A strong response at Celtic Park would help stabilise momentum and restore confidence among players and supporters after the cup setback, while another loss would deepen scrutiny of how the team copes with high-pressure domestic fixtures.

Tackles, running and the edge Baur wants to see

Baur returns repeatedly to the theme that the deciding factors on Sunday will be work-rate and competitive edge more than game-plan diagrams.

“Tactics are really important, but as we all saw last Sunday, it was not about that. It was about tackling back, to run back. It was about that and we should bring that on Sunday.”

He stresses that Celtic cannot simply abandon their principles in possession, but that technical quality must be matched by intensity.

“You don’t want to stop playing good with the ball.

“It’s more about the energy, it’s more about the mentality on Sunday, but it should be a good mix.”

Sunday’s fixture at Celtic Park therefore arrives as a dual examination: of Celtic’s capacity to channel the backing of a full home crowd into the kind of physical and mental performance Baur demands, and of the team’s ability to convert that response into Premiership points against their closest rivals just days after being knocked out of the League Cup.