Scottish Premier League - Match Prediction: Saint Johnstone VS Glasgow Rangers

Match Time：4/22/2021 02:00 Thursday  (GMT+8)

Scottish Premier League --  Saint Johnstone   VS   Glasgow Rangers

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Scottish Premiership champions Rangers travel to St Johnstone on Wednesday evening, hoping to extend their unbeaten league record to 35 matches.

 

Meanwhile, the hosts have enjoyed a stellar spell of form, losing just one of their last eight games in all competitions.

 

Match preview

Rangers enjoyed more success against arch-rivals Celtic last weekend, as they progressed from the fourth round of the Scottish Cup, winning the Old Firm derby 2-0 at Ibrox.

 

An acrobatic effort from Steven Davis opened the scoring just 10 minutes in, before Joe Aribo's cross was turned into his own net by Jonjoe Kenny, which gave Steven Gerrard's side a two-goal cushion heading into half time.

 

Odsonne Edouard had the chance to pull one back for the visitors, however his spot kick was saved by Allan McGregor. The Gers eventually held on for the victory, ending Celtic's four-year Scottish Cup reign.

 

Rangers have been rewarded with a quarter-final tie against St Johnstone on Sunday, but first must prepare for their Scottish Premiership clash against the Saints on Wednesday.

 

The Gers travel to McDiarmid Park with an impressive top-flight record, having failed to lose any of their last 12 visits there, winning 10 times, drawing the other two and keeping six clean sheets in the process.

 

Rangers have won all three meetings against the Saints this season by a 7-0 aggregate score and with just four league matches to go, Gerrard's men are desperate to become only the second club in Scottish top-flight history to go through an entire league campaign unbeaten.

 

St Johnstone bounced back from a narrow league defeat to Aberdeen with a 2-0 victory against League One side Clyde in the Scottish Cup last weekend.

 

Goals from Guy Melamed and Michael O'Halloran put the Saints two goals in front after just 21 minutes but despite dominating the match with 67% possession and preventing the visitors from having a single shot on target, Callum Davidson's side were unable to increase their lead.

 

Nevertheless, St Johnstone progressed from the fourth round for the fifth successive year, although their hopes of winning their second piece of silverware this season – after already lifting the League Cup trophy in February – may prove a challenge as they face Rangers, a team they have beaten only twice in their last 24 meetings against them.

 

The Perth-based outfit welcome the newly-crowned champions on Wednesday, having not beaten them in the league since winning 3-1 at Ibrox in December 2017. In fact, their last top-flight home win over Rangers goes back as far as March 2010.

 

Remarkably, St Johnstone are the only team that have failed to score more than a single goal on home soil in league matches this season; they have scored just eight goals at McDiarmid Park, at least five fewer than any other side in the division.

 

Their chances of success in midweek are slim, but Davidson will be hoping to learn a lot from this fixture heading into their Scottish Cup encounter later this week.

 

St Johnstone Scottish Premiership form: LWDWWL

St Johnstone form (all competitions): DWWWLW

 

Rangers Scottish Premiership form: WWWWDW

Rangers form (all competitions): DLDWWW

 

Team News

St Johnstone midfielder Murray Davidson, who has not played since he picked up a calf injury against Rangers in February, remains unavailable for selection.

 

Goalkeeper Zander Clark is expected to return to the side at the expense of Elliot Parish, while experienced midfielder Craig Bryson could start ahead of either O'Halloran or Melamed.

 

Rangers captain James Tavernier was fit to make the bench in the Old Firm derby last weekend and could be in contention to start on Wednesday ahead of Nathan Patterson.

 

Midfielder Ryan Jack has been ruled out for the rest of the season with a calf problem, while defender Leon Balogun is doubtful after picking up an ankle knock in training.

 

If Gerrard wishes to freshen up the side in attack, he may decide to start either Kemar Roofe or Ianis Hagi ahead of Aribo or Scott Arfield.

 

St Johnstone possible starting lineup:

Clark; McCart, Gordon, Kerr; Brown, McCann, Bryson, Tanser; Wotherspoon, Melamed; May

 

Rangers possible starting lineup:

McGregor; Tavernier, Goldson, Helander, Baricic; Kamara, Davis, Aribo; Hagi, Morelos, Kent

 

St Johnstone vs Rangers

St Johnstone 0-2 Rangers