CROATIA international defender Josip Juranovic believes tonight’s Glasgow derby will be entirely different from the one at Ibrox earlier in the season.
The full-back was rushed into an unaccustomed No.3 position shortly after sealing his £2.5million arrival from Legia Warsaw.
It was also Ange Postecoglou’s baptism in the Govan fixture and depite the Hoops being cobbled together with players coming and going during a frantic August transfer window they put on a decent display.
However, they were undone when they failed to clear a right-wing corner-kick in the 66th minute and Filip Helander rose unchallenged to bullet the only goal of the encounter beyond the helpless Joe Hart.
HEADING FOR A FALL…Kyogo Furuhashi was out of luck at Ibrox on August 29.
The visitors still had chances to score and the best fell to Kyogo Furuhashi who started the match on the left wing before moving inside to replace the ineffectual Odsonne Edouard.
The Japanese striker thought he had claimed a later leveller until keeper Robby McCrorie stuck out a right foot to divert the ball away from the target.
This evening, in front of 60,000 fans at Parkhead, Postecoglou and Co have the perfect chance to exact revenge and move a point ahead of the Premiership pinnacle if they overcome Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s team.
Juranovic is looking forward to the return challenge and insisted: “I am quite excited because it will be a stadium full of our fans.
“It’s a big game and we’re looking forward to playing our football.
“We are always ready. You cannot say that we played badly when we played against them in my first game.
“It was a great game from us because we had four chances, I think they didn’t have one. They scored with a corner-kick.
“Then we were only playing maybe two weeks together.
“Now, it’s a little longer and we know each other. It will be a totally different game.”
DERBY DEBUT…Josip Juranovic in action at Ibrox shortly after his £2.5million arrival.
Asked if he has been keeping tabs on events across the city, Juranovic, speaking to Celtic TV, answered: “Honestly, I don’t. I don’t watch football when I am off the pitch.
“I will not say much because we need to watch ourselves. We need to talk between us about them – and that’s it.
“We set our rules, our achievements each game, each training session.
“If we continue like that, that’s perfect.
”Pressure is when a doctor wants to save some lives.
“We are only playing football. We have pressure, but not like that. We want to enjoy it.
“In 90 minutes, I don’t think about anything else, just play football. Because of that I just want our fans to be happy after.
“We will see after the season.
SHARPSHOOTER JOTA…the Portuguese winger is a goal threat this evening.
“I come here and we lift one trophy. Then we will continue like that.”
Welsh international midfielder Aaron Ramsey joined Van Bronckhorst’s outfit just before the deadline on a six-month loan from Juventis and Juranovic added: “That’s good for them. We have really quality players here and we need to watch ourselves.
“It’s just Ramsey. It’s nothing special. If you have say, Cristiano Ronaldo in the team and the team is not going well, it’s not just one player who will change the game, you need all 11.
”We have Hatate and Jota, but that’s just two. But also, we have Carl Starfelt, then Cameron Carter-Vickers, then Rogic – who is not here – we have Liel Abada, Kyogo, Giorgos Giakoumakis.
“We have so many players who can damage them.”
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