{"id":665033,"date":"2025-12-31T16:30:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T16:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/665033\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T16:30:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T16:30:13","slug":"rangers-send-ravaged-rivals-celtic-warning-as-they-aim-to-pile-more-misery-on-wilfried-nancy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/665033\/","title":{"rendered":"Rangers send ravaged rivals Celtic warning as they aim to pile more misery on Wilfried Nancy"},"content":{"rendered":"

The rejuvenated Ibrox side are now just three points behind the champions ahead of Parkhead trip<\/p>\n

12:00, 31 Dec 2025Updated 12:23, 31 Dec 2025<\/p>\n

Emmanuel Fernandez insists Rangers will go to Celtic Park on Saturday expecting to win the Old Firm derby.<\/p>\n

The Ibrox defender believes they can pile more misery on Hoops gaffer Wilfried Nancy by picking up three points at Parkhead. Danny Rohl\u2019s<\/a> side hauled themselves back into the Premiership title race on Tuesday night with victory against St Mirren<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With Celtic<\/a> losing to Motherwell at Fir Park on the same night, Rangers<\/a> closed the gap at the top of the table. Rohl\u2019s men are now just three behind their Glasgow rivals and six off leaders Hearts going into the New Year.<\/p>\n

An Old Firm victory would be a statement result for Gers – and heap pressure on under-fire Nancy. But Fernandez – who notched his fourth goal of the season from centre-back against the Buddies – says a resurgent Rangers aren\u2019t planning for any other outcome.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old said: \u201cLook, for the game coming up at the weekend we\u2019ve just got to stay focused on ourselves and deal with it. I can\u2019t wait for it because it\u2019ll be my first derby.<\/p>\n

“And we\u2019ve got to go into the game with the mentality that we\u2019ll get three points – then move on to the next one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rangers could be ready to mount a serious title challenge in the second half of the campaign, with Rohl set to strengthen his squad in the January transfer window.<\/p>\n

But Fernandez is adamant that no-one at Ibrox will get carried away just yet.<\/p>\n

Rangers’ Emmanuel Fernandez celebrates <\/p>\n

He said: \u201cNo, I think we just focus on one game at a time. I wouldn\u2019t say we\u2019re focusing on the title, it\u2019s just on winning each game and then seeing where it gets us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rangers wrapped up another three points on Tuesday thanks to Fernandez\u2019s strike and Thelo Aasgaard<\/a>\u2019s opener against the Paisley side. Mikael Mandron made it 2-1 late on after Jack Butland had earlier saved a Marcus Fraser penalty.<\/p>\n

Rohl has only lost once in the league since taking over from ex-boss Russell Martin, which has seen them climb the league table. Fernandez, who is now a regular in defence, was delighted to rack up another win.<\/p>\n

The \u00a32.5million former Peterborough man said: \u201cLook, we were resilient on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

“We knew what we were coming up against. There was always going to be a lot of long balls and it was a big challenge for us.<\/p>\n

“But I think we stood up to that challenge, did well and got the three points.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The rejuvenated Ibrox side are now just three points behind the champions ahead of Parkhead trip 12:00, 31…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4100],"tags":[2628,76431,192586,94,1948,1946,1638,79,21841,101659,16,15,179997],"class_list":{"0":"post-665033","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-celtic-fc","9":"tag-danny-rohl","10":"tag-emmanuel-fernandez","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-jack-butland","13":"tag-rangers-fc","14":"tag-scottish-premiership","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-st-mirren-fc","17":"tag-thelo-aasgaard","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom","20":"tag-wilfried-nancy"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115815135643852048","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}