Samaras relishing another derby clash

CELTIC are preparing for the fourth derby meeting of the season, with another three clashes still to follow before the end of the campaign.

Georgios Samaras has already made his mark on the fixture this season, scoring both goals in Celtic’s impressive 2-0 victory over Rangers at Ibrox at the start of January.

But the Greek striker, along with his team-mates, is not looking back at any past glory. Their focus is solely on the task in hand, which is to win Sunday’s SPL fixture and gain another three points.

“The derby is great, and the atmosphere and the supporters are also always great,” Samaras said in an exclusive interview with the official Celtic website.

“I was glad to score the two goals at Ibrox but that was one game. We must focus on the rest of our games and put more pressure on Rangers and show we are good enough to win the league trophy.”

Samaras was denied another Ibrox goal in the last encounter – a 2-2 Scottish Cup draw – after Allan McGregor saved his goal-bound header.

But the 25-year-old believes the Celtic team can take great confidence from that game, which saw them play for over half the match with 10 men after Fraser Forster was red-carded.

“We were 2-1 down and had 10 men, but in the second half we had most of the possession, kept creating scoring chances, and after we equalised we had one or two more chances to go on and win the game,” said Samaras.

“That showed to people we are a good team that will always work really hard on the pitch to try and win our games.

“We are a big squad, we are working together every day and we push each other for the extra yard.”