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Daily Record
Daily Record
Sport
Steven Mair

Kyogo Furuhashi fever grips Rangers vs Celtic viewers in Japan as derby debut picked up for TV

Japanese viewers will be tuning into Sunday's big derby in their thousands – after Rangers vs Celtic was picked up for live coverage in the country.

Ange Postecoglou experiences the showpiece fixture for the first time this weekend after a solid run in charge at Parkhead.

And victory in the fixture – which would be Celtic's first since the League Cup Final in December 2019 – would go some way to generating an advantage in the title race.

Steven Gerrard meanwhile is looking to arrest a recent slide in performances and will have the raucous backing of 50,000 home fans at Ibrox.

But on the other side of the world, from 8pm Tokyo time, Japan will be watching.

Over-the-top streaming platform DAZN have picked up the game at the 11th hour to allow fans to watch former Yokohama F. Marinos manager Postecoglou - as well as star man Kyogo Furuhashi.

The 26-year-old is off to a blistering start in Glasgow with seven goals in eight games and he's adored back home.

His hat-trick against Dundee is the second-most watched video on the SPFL YouTube account and the Japanese language Celtic Twitter account has generated 27,000 followers in just under a month.

However there's also likely to be some interest on the other side, too.

There exists a large Liverpool support across Asia, including in Japan, and many of those fans are likely keen to tune in and watch Gerrard's first derby match as a Premiership champion.

It could be a massive draw with the high noon kick-off time an advantage too, given many afternoon or evening kick-offs in the UK are too late for many viewers in Asia.

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