Rangers ace urges teammates to 'up our level' as pundit lauds 'fantastic' Celtic star

Celtic and Rangers are both getting ready for Scottish League Cup semi final clashes at the weekend - Celtic will face Aberdeen on Saturday, while Rangers are scheduled to face Motherwell. What is happening in the rumour mill this morning?

Despite the Light Blues’ ongoing woes, a Rangers star has encouraged his teammates to keep their heads up - in the meantime, a pundit has lavished praise on a Celtic star.

Cyriel Dessers belives Rangers can reverse their fortunes in the Scottish Premiership

On Wednesday evening, Rangers hit yet another stumbling block when they were beaten by Aberdeen at Pittodrie Stadium by a score of 2-1. While the Light Blues’ fortunes are looking bleak, star striker Cyriel Dessers thinks that they can turn things around.

Speaking in a press conference, Dessers said: “I think [we can come back from this]. I think last year around this time, we were in a similar situation, and I think by New Year, we kind of closed the gap, and then later in the season, we came back again, so it’s not impossible, but we will need to up our level in more games.

“It was extremely difficult and painful. Obviously it was a big game, so you arrive with some expectations, and to walk off the pitch with a loss really hurt.

“We found control in the second half, and at that time I think we had some small chances. At that point we missed a little bit in terms of creating the big chances to finish it off.

“I haven’t seen their second goal yet, but it looks like we were a little bit unlucky there, and they were very sharp at the second post again. It’s painful that we gave away the control there again, and then it was going to be tough in the last 15 minutes.”

Michael Stewart praises Alistair Johnston

In contrast to Rangers, Celtic have enjoyed a positive start to the 2024/25 season - and one of their standout performers has been Canadian international Alistair Johnston. His displays have been noticed by Michael Stewart, who hailed him as a ‘fantastic’ player.

Talking on BBC Sportscene, Stewart said: “He’s a fantastic player, and everything that we’ve just been talking about in terms of desire and hunger, a genuine winner; Alistair Johnston’s got that in bucketloads.

“He’s very much in the same vein as Devlin, attacking full-backs; he constantly wants to get into those dangerous areas. This is a tremendous finish, it’s not an easy one at all, driving in there at the near post and getting that on target.

“It’s a big, big accolade for Alistair Johnston when you see him stepping up and taking the captain’s armband when Callum McGregor has been out the side at the weekend.

“I think that you look at Juranovic and the impact he made at Celtic; he just went out the door and was completely forgotten about. Alistair Johnston came in, and straight away, you could see this guy was a winner, and he continues to improve as well.”