'Old Firm is the mother of all derby games – it’s the same pressure as the UCL final'

Champions League-winner Paul Lambert has dubbed the Old Firm the "mother of all derbies".

Celtic and Rangers face off for the fifth time this season in Saturday's Scottish Cup final at Hampden Park. Brendan Rodgers has already collected the Premiership title and is looking to complete an unbeaten run in the Glasgow derby since returning the Hoops helm last year.

The two teams will be greeted by a cauldron of emotion, which Lambert knows all too well from his days at Celtic Park. And the 54-year-old even went so far as to compare Scotland's most famed fixture to club football's most celebrated match in terms of pressure to win.

Lambert told Undr the Cosh (via the Daily Record): "The Old Firm is unique. I heard [former Celtic manager] Ange Postecoglou say this in an interview the other day - it's probably one of the derbies of all derbies, because of what it is and what it stands for.

"You have to be so tough in it, with your brain. You have to be prepared to take the criticism that comes your way [and] take the praise when it comes. It's the mother of all derbies, just because of what it stands for. Going back a few years, I would see tackles going in at full height and it be legal. That's the Old Firm for you. This is what it is."

Lambert lifted the Champions League with Borussia Dortmund in 1997, beating Juventus just a few months before he returned to his native Scotland. And the first British player to win Europe's greatest honour with a non-British club has rare experience in contrasting the two occasions.

"[It's the] same," he added. "Because of what the history of the club was for Celtic. You're talking protecting the legacy of the Lisbon Lions. Number one, the [legacy of] the Lisbon Lions will never be beaten, unless Celtic go and win the European Cup again. It will never be beaten.

"Jimmy Johnstone, Stevie Chalmers, all them guys. Jim Craig, brilliant footballers. It will never be done in the radius of 30-odd miles, and everybody being Scottish. . .so you're protecting that legacy of the great Jock Stein, nine [Scottish league titles] in a row. And jeez, if you'd lost that, that's your history away. So that's why I say the pressure of that is monumental."

Celtic have won three of their four Old Firm fixtures this season, and only a last-minute Rabbi Matondo equaliser at Ibrox in April prevented them from a perfect run so far. However, Rodgers' side will soon forget about that slip if they live up to their favourites tag to collect a second piece of silverware in his comeback campaign.