Rangers vs Ross County prediction 27.12.2023

• Competition: Premiership
• Date: Wednesday, 27th December 2023
• Kickoff: 19:45 UK / 20:45 CET
• Venue: Ibrox Stadium (Glasgow)

Rangers are still the leading team in Scotland with 55 league titles and 118 total titles, compared to Celtic's 53 and 116. Still, in recent years, Celtic have been much better and could easily overtake them soon. This season, Rangers started poorly, and it seemed that the title was slowly slipping away early in the season. Still, with an excellent two and a half months, Rangers are now only two points behind the 1st place and the arc-rivals, Celtic, but with one game fewer. Also, Rangers did great in the Europa League, securing the 1/8 Finals by finishing 1st in group C with Sparta Prague, Real Betis, and Aris. 

Ross County barely secured survival last year as they won 4:3 on aggregate in the relegation playout versus Partick Thistle. This season, even though it is still early, Ross County once again looks like the team that would get involved in a relegation battle. At this moment, they are 10th with 17 points from 17 rounds, but they are expecting a really tough schedule in the upcoming games: Rangers, Hearts, Aberdeen, and Celtic! So, after these games, the situation for the Staggies will most likely only get worse. 

Rangers vs Ross County pick: Both teams to score - NO

Rangers are the best team in the league at this moment and will surely score at least one goal in this match. However, their defense has been simply incredible as they allowed only eight goals in 18 rounds - 0.44 per game. To put in perspective just how good they are, the second-best defensive team is Celtic, with 14 goals in 19 rounds (0.74 per game). Also, in the last three games in all competitions, Rangers kept a clean sheet every time!

Ross County lost back-to-back games against Dundee FC and St. Mirren and failed to score in those two games, so it is hard to expect goal(s) away from home against the best defensive team in the league. 

Interestingly, these two teams had the fewest games in the league with both teams scoring. Only 22% of Rangers games and 24% of Ross County games finished with both teams scoring.

In the previous h2h game, Rangers won 2:0 away from home. Considering everything above, we might see a similar outcome. Since the odds on Asian handicaps are too low, we prefer a BTTS - NO bet.