The big guns enter the Scottish League Cup as Rangers are paired with St Johnstone on Saturday at Hampden - can St Johnstone take advantage of Ranger’s stuttering start to the season?
Check out our free tips for Rangers v St Johnstone, plus the best football betting offers from our top football betting sites.
Rangers v St Johnstone Betting Tips
Rangers v St Johnstone Match Preview
Already two points behind Celtic in the quest for Scottish Premiership honours. Already out of the Champions League. You would not necessarily want to be in the shoes of Rangers manager Philippe Clement right now.
The Belgian fell short in each of the Old Firm derbies that Rangers and Celtic contested with him in charge last season. The Belgian was still handed a contract extension over the course of the summer – a decision that is already looking less than shrewd.
An opening day draw at Hearts is not the worst result for any club outside the Glasgow giants but unfortunately if you are one of them, it can only be labelled as dropped points and advantage ceded to your nearest rivals.
Not only has an advantage been ceded early on from a league perspective but also from a financial one as well. Champions Celtic in amongst the extended Champions League party, Rangers having to watch from the outside once again.
The reason for their exclusion to European club football’s biggest party is due to their 2-0 reverse to Dynamo Kyiv in midweek. With the first leg of their qualifier being held in Poland the week before, a 1-1 draw left the tie finely poised for the return in Scotland.
While it was still finely poised up until the 50th minute when Jefre was sent off for a second bookable offence. Dynamo Kyiv with a man advantage on the field of play and in the final few minutes, they would turn that into a two-goal advantage on the night.
The Rangers dumped out on a night that was meant to signify further European progress and now they must make sure they are not dumped out of the Scottish League Cup by fellow Premiership outfit St Johnstone.
The McDiarmid Park outfit arrive here having made rather light work of Kilmarnock at the weekend. A 3-0 win in Ayrshire giving manager Craig Levein his first win of the season having seen his charges lose at home to Aberdeen the week before.
As like last season, Levein’s remit will be to keep the club in the top tier of Scottish football and with new American owners coming to Perth, the task may be slightly easier. However, that task is paused for this weekend, as St Johnstone will look to cause more misery for their hosts.
But now it is time for the first of my two tips and although Rangers are in turmoil, I am not sure St Johnstone are the team to truly take advantage. With this in mind, I am going to back a half time draw and then a home win at odds of 3/1.
In addition to this, I can see both teams wanting to make the mark on the game early on and this could be physically more than anything else. Therefore, I am also going to back over 0.5 cards in the first 10 minutes at odds of 8/1.
Rangers v St Johnstone Betting Odds
| Team | Odds |
|---|---|
| Rangers Odds | 1/7 |
| Draw Odds | 13/2 |
| St Johnstone Odds | 12/1 |
Odds courtesy of Betfred, correct at the time of publication
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