Celtic go into the game 16 points clear of Rangers at the top of the Premiership, and with just nine league games remaining, Brendan Rodgers’ side are homing in on a fourth consecutive title.

However, no one within the Celtic camp is looking beyond the 90 minutes ahead and the need to get another three vital points.

“These games are important, and especially the home team starting well,” McGregor said. “If you can get on top of the game, the crowd come with you and it’s an amazing atmosphere, so we’ll had a lot of good experiences at home in that type of situation and starting the game in that manner.

'We’ve scored a few early goals and we’ve set the tone early in the game so you have to try and maximize all of that.'

“There was a freshness about the squad last week and it’s probably as good as we’ve been for a while – the hunger, willingness to run, freshness, get inside the pressure, get the ball back and Hibs struggled to live with that.

“So if we can bring a similar level of performance, then we hope that that’s enough to give us a good day.

“I thought it was a brilliant atmosphere last weekend. It was really good. It was a good game of football and we played to a really high level and more supporters being in the stadium gives that kind of atmosphere, so it was great.

“And we’re expecting similar again this weekend. I think everybody’s probably looking forward to seeing how the fixture plays out and can that be the template for moving forward and maybe trying to get even more in for both fixtures.

'So this will be good. Everybody’s looking forward to it and the players are raring to go as well.'

This will be the fourth meeting between the sides this season, with the home side coming out on top on the two previous league encounters, while there were green and white ribbons on the League Cup trophy after a dramatic penalty shoot-out victory in the final at Hampden.

And regardless of the fact that the most recent meeting saw the Hoops lose at Ibrox, Callum McGregor and his team-mates go into this Sunday’s game full of confident.

“Celtic Park has been excellent for us over a number of years now, so we’ve maximized that and the players have generally performed really well in this fixture, especially at home,” he said.

“We have a nice bit of experience to draw on from that but, again, we have to do all the right things when it comes to Sunday. We’ve got to run and work hard and do all the things you need to do in derby games.

“So we take it in isolation but, of course, there’s a little bit of a confidence there of what we’re been like previously, and we have a nice template to go from, so if the players do that and they give everything, then I’m sure we’ll have a positive day.”

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