Preview: Celtic vs. Ross County - prediction, team news, lineups

Brendan Rodgers's side had to sit back and watch Rangers close the gap to five points at the top on Wednesday, but they will feel confident of maintaining that lead against out-of-form opponents.

Match preview

Unsurprisingly, Celtic have recovered impressively from shock back-to-back defeats in the Premiership back in December.

Despite that rare instance, Rodgers's men are still top of the standings, but Rangers do not look likely of going away anytime soon after another win in midweek.

Celtic themselves are keeping up though, as an expected win over Buckie Thistle in the cup at the weekend was their fifth in a row.

League victories over Livingston, Dundee and St Mirren complemented the most important result of the season so far, when they beat Rangers in the derby shortly before the new year.

With Rangers still to play another game in hand against Celtic's upcoming opponents next month, that result was critical, as it keeps them in the ascendancy regardless of Rangers' additional fixture.

However, Celtic have already dropped seven points at home, three more than they did in the entirety of last season, so before three straight away games, they must ensure no more slip-ups here.

Ross County are opponents who very rarely cause much trouble for Celtic in Glasgow though, as they have never won a league game here in 17 attempts, with the hosts winning the last 10.

As the visitors come into this game on a run of seven away games without a win, the task looks even more arduous for Derek Adams's side.

After a strong start following his appointment in November which saw Adams win seven points in his first three games, he was winless in his final four before the winter break, taking just one point.

Away form has not seen any significant improvement since the departure of Malky Mackay, as their only win on the road came back in early September.

It was an embarrassing home defeat last weekend which had their supporters up in arms though, as second-tier Partick Thistle thrashed Ross County 3-0 to dump them out of the Scottish Cup.

A defeat of the same scoreline is how they signed off before the winter break too, as Aberdeen also convincingly beat Adams's men earlier this month.

County are fortunate that Livingston have been remarkably poor this season, as they are averaging less than a point-per-game so far this season but still have a comfortable buffer between themselves and the automatic relegation spot.

Celtic Scottish Premiership form:

L

L

W

W

W

W

Celtic form (all competitions):

L

W

W

W

W

W

Ross County Scottish Premiership form:

W

W

L

L

D

L

Ross County form (all competitions):

W

L

L

D

L

L

Team News

Celtic remain without a number of first-team players on Asian Cup duty, with Daizen Maeda and Reo Hatate away with Japan.

Kyogo Furuhashi was surprisingly not called up by the Samurai Blue, but fellow striker Marco Tilio is away with Australia and Oh Hyeon-gyu and Yang Hyun-jun are representing South Korea.

Hamstring issues are set to keep Cameron Carter-Vickers and James McCarthy out, in Celtic's only injury absentees.

Matt O'Riley is set to stay at Celtic Park until at least the end of the season, after Rodgers confirmed that the club have rejected Atletico Madrid's approach for the player this week.

After a late dismissal against Aberdeen in their last league outing, Ross County will be without defender Jack Baldwin for another two games due to suspension.

Adams is also without three players due to injury, as Dylan Smith (ankle), Ross Callachan and Ben Paton (both knee) all remain sidelined.

Celtic possible starting lineup:

Hart; Johnson, Nawrocki, Scales, Taylor; O'Riley, McGregor, Paulo Bernardo; Abada, Kyogo, Palma

Ross County possible starting lineup:

Laidlaw; Brown, Harmon, Leak, Purrington; Dhanda, Sheaf, Loturi, Sims; White, Murray

We say: Celtic 4-0 Ross County

There is little doubt that Celtic will record a straightforward win here over a struggling side near the bottom of the table to keep their lead at five points over Rangers.

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