Celtic should be high on confidence going into the Scottish Cup semi-final. They have won the previous two Glasgow Derbies and arguably been the better team in all three of them till now this season. On the other hand, the Rangers are coming off of a huge result as well, having won 3-1 against SC Braga at Ibrox, and 3-2 on aggregate, to book their place in the Europa League semi-finals.

Thus, Celtic cannot afford to take Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side lightly. The game at Hampden Park could definitely turn out to be a tight one.

Celtic have a huge worry going into the game though as Giorgos Giakoumakis, who has been a key part of the starting XI since the turn of the year, looks set to miss out the Scottish Cup semi-final completely. He was forced off the pitch last weekend in the 7-0 win over St Johnstone.

As reported by the Daily Record, Giakoumakis has been ruled out of the game against the Rangers as Ange Postecoglou confirmed at his press conference that he has not recovered from his injury in time to feature at Hampden Park.

Will Celtic struggle vs Rangers without Giakoumakis?

It goes without saying that Giakoumakis being absent is going to be a major blow for this Celtic side.

Giakoumakis might not have enjoyed a great start to life at Celtic, but he has pretty much come into his own in the second half of the campaign and shown why he topped the Eredivisie scoring charts last season.

According to stats from Transfermarkt, Giakoumakis has scored 13 goals in 24 appearances for Celtic. He is scoring a goal in less than every 100 minutes on the pitch though, having featured for 1273 minutes till now.

And it is not just his goalscoring ability that has become important for Postecoglou’s side, but also his overall play as well, as the Greek striker is someone who is able to get the best out of those around him as well.

Daizen Maeda is the perfect example of someone who has benefited from playing alongside him but now, it looks like the Japanese star might have to be the one leading the line for the club this weekend, with Kyogo also having returned from injury only recently.

This article was originally posted here