A round-up of the latest Celtic and Rangers news headlines on Thursday afternoon

Celtic return to Premiership action this weekend before their attention shifts to the Scottish Cup semi-finals on April 20th. As for Rangers, they face La Liga outfit Athletic Bilbao in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final tie this evening.

As the two Glasgow sides wait to play out their upcoming fixtures, we’ve taken a look at some of the latest news on Thursday.

Celtic to rekindle Kvistgaarden interest

Celtic have been chasing one of Danish football’s hottest prospect for several transfer windows - and it’s now emerged that Mathias Kvistgaarden looks certain to leave Brondby in the summer window after another impressive goal scoring campaign.

To date, the Scottish champions have tried and failed to land the towering striker who has taken his game to another level and is braced for a big-money switch in the coming months.

The 22-year-old has been on Brendan Rodgers’ transfer radar for the last two years as he continues to catch eyes in the Superliga, with Celtic previously priced out of a deal to sign the prolific hitman last summer as well as January.

It’s expected that they will rekindle their interested in Kvistgaarden ahead of the next season’s Champions League qualifiers, with the former Denmark Under-21 talent capable of playing through the middle or out wide - offering similar versatility to 30-goal sensation Daizen Maeda.

Rodgers is eyeing more firepower in attack and rising star Kvistgaarden is one player who certainly fits the bill, having scored 17 goals and provided five assists in all competitions this term. He remains under contract until 2027 and is a target for several other European big guns including Sporting Lisbon and Eintracht Frankfurt.

The best food, sport and culture in our GlasgowWorld newsletter - sign up here.

Valued at an eye-watering £13.5million by his parent club, Brondby are holding out for big bucks, with chairman Jan Bech Andersen confirming they knocked back Deadline Day bids from Celtic in January - but hinted a summer exit would be on the cards.

He said: “Yes, we turned down offers - concrete ones and less concrete ones. There were never any numbers that made us deviate from our plan not to sell him in this transfer window.

“They weren't good enough, but hopefully it will be when the time is right for him and the club. It was 100 per cent a goal for us to keep him for the rest of the season. There have been many enquiries about him - on the last day and the penultimate day of the transfer window.

“But we have a good dialogue with Kvistgaarden and his agent about what we are trying to achieve together. And the plan was for him to play for us in the spring, when we have many big goals to achieve and then we have to see what happens in the summer.”

Rangers handed UEL ‘favourites’ tag

Wily Athletic Bilbao manager Ernesto Valverde has claimed that Rangers are FAVOURITES to win the Europa League this year - and namedropped two players who can cause his side real problems tonight.

The Spaniard insists he won’t be side-tracked by the Light Blues wretched home form, insisting: “Rangers are one of the toughest teams in the competition for me. There are arguments they could be favourites. It’s a knockout competition.

“Rangers, I view that as something extraordinary, the run of losses. Never happened before. I watched Rangers vs Hibs, they had more chances but didn’t make the most of them. Let’s see what Rangers show up on Thursday. They’re a good team who move well across the pitch, very fast. A lot of modes of play. Hit us on counter attacks.

“Players like (Cyriel) Dessers and (Vaclav) Cerny who can play well. They can compete with any team and it’s only three years since they reached the final. It’s a big challenge playing in a stadium like this in the quarter-final .Of course they’ll try and dominate the game. When they press high they have a lot of aggression like was shown against Celtic. We are expecting the best version of Rangers.”