{"id":451496,"date":"2026-03-01T05:53:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T05:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/451496\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T05:53:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T05:53:09","slug":"benjamin-nygren-guns-for-rangers-rejects-celtic-theory-and-names-star-turning-heads-in-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/451496\/","title":{"rendered":"Benjamin Nygren guns for Rangers, rejects Celtic theory and names star turning heads in training"},"content":{"rendered":"

Swede is leading the goal charts but is desperate to net the biggest one yet at Ibrox.<\/p>\n

Benjamin Nygren says he\u2019s gunning to fire his first Old Firm goal at Ibrox today – and blast Celtic<\/a> in front of Rangers in the title race.<\/p>\n

The Premiership\u2019s leading scorer has netted against every one of the top eight sides except their arch rivals.<\/p>\n

And Nygren knows there would be no better time to break that duck than in the high noon powderkeg across the city.<\/p>\n

The on-form Swede has 18 goals to his name in his debut season at Parkhead and has hit the net in six of his last nine outings.<\/p>\n

A victory this afternoon would move the champions above Rangers<\/a> into second place and with a game in hand.<\/p>\n

And midfielder Nygren<\/a> knows he an play a massive part in that if he continues his goalscoring run in enemy territory.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThat would be amazing. That’s what I want to do, to help the team to win the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always try to have my confidence really high. But yeah, it’s been very good lately. So for sure, myself and the whole team will bring a lot of it to the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martin O\u2019Neill<\/a>\u2019s side are underdogs heading across the city. But they are desperately in need of a victory after last week\u2019s home defeat to Hibs saw them slip six points behind leaders Hearts.<\/p>\n

A morale boosting 1-0 win over Stuttgart in Germany on Thursday night was ultimately too little too late for their Europa League hopes.<\/p>\n

But it was proof that there\u2019s still life in the champions yet.<\/p>\n

Nygren\u2019s midfield colleague Luke McCowan claimed nobody in Scotland can touch Celtic on that form.<\/p>\n

The Swede reckons he was spot on in his assessment.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cYeah, I agree with that. I think we go in with a lot of confidence to every game, no matter what.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs this a must-win? No, there\u2019s still many, many games left.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut of course, it’s a very important game and we’re going to do everything to get the win.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill faces some big calls in his starting line-up for Ibrox. With Auston Trusty suspended he must choose between rookie Dane Murray, who produced a solid performance against Stuttgart on Thursday, or untried January signing Benjamin Arthur in the centre of defence beside Liam Scales.<\/p>\n

The Parkhead boss might even rip up his plans and move to a back three.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s another dilemma in goal after Viljami Sinisalo threw up the shutters in Germany to stake his claim for a start ahead of struggling Kasper Schmeichel.<\/p>\n

But Nygren insists it doesn\u2019t matter who O\u2019Neill selects for the biggest game of the season so far – the Hoops will still have the quality to take three massive points in the title race.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cYeah, for sure. For sure. We have so many good players.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur new signing, Benji, came in the last game when Auston got sent off and he’s been looking good in training.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd Dane Murray was playing yesterday and gave a very strong performance. We have a lot of good players in every position.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo yeah, I think everyone in the squad is looking forward to the game a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Swede is leading the goal charts but is desperate to net the biggest one yet at Ibrox. Benjamin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[20127,2817,218,2714,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-451496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-benjamin-nygren","tag-celtic-fc","tag-football","tag-rangers-fc","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}