Former Celtic captain Scott Brown believes a win for the Scottish champions against Rangers on Sunday "changes the game" after a turbulent week for Martin O'Neill's side.

Rangers triumphed 3-0 at home in last Sunday's Old Firm League Cup quarter-final before Celtic opened their Europa League campaign with a 3-1 defeat at home by Ferencvaros on Thursday.

However, Celtic's early season domestic form has them going into Sunday's match in the east end of Glasgow - which like last week will have no visiting supporters in attendance - with a five-point advantage over their Ibrox rivals.

"If Celtic win and they're eight points clear, it changes the game," Brown said on BBC Scotland's YouTube channel.

"Can [Rangers] go to Celtic Park and do they exact same thing as last week?

"Celtic now have had a week to understand how that game went. They are going to have to make sure that they match that energy but also match that willingness to go and win the match."

Brown was impressed by Rangers manager Derek McInnes' change of approach in the season's first derby, change to a 3-5-2 shape and going man for man with Celtic's front three.

"They went after Celtic from the get go," Brown said. "They looked like they wanted the win more. For him to change his tactics, nobody expected him to do that. That is a very, very good manager to pick that out."