The battle in the dugout
BRENDAN RODGERS faced his old Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard as a rival boss for the first time yesterday.
It was master versus apprentice and Rodgers showed the former England skipper he still has plenty to learn.
Here, Record Sport looks at how they handled a massive derby day.
Rodgers was denied the services of Moussa Dembele after the French striker forced through a £20million move to Lyon.
But he fielded the same starting XI which beat the Ibrox club 5-0 in the final derby of last season.
James Tavernier was the only Gers star still in the team from that nightmare defeat as gaffer Gerrard handed Old Firm debuts to six players.
Celtic stuck to the same fluid gameplan that has claimed back-to-back Trebles under Rodgers.
Kieran Tierney was allowed to push on from left-back and was given plenty of encouragement by the hapless Ryan Kent.
That tied down the Gers winger and also opened up space for Olivier Ntcham to roam free as Scott Arfield was sucked out from central midfield to back up the exposed Tavernier on the right.
Gerrard had tested a 3-5-2 formation against Motherwell last week but after shipping three goals reverted to a back four. He BY ALAN MARSHALL looked to get an edge on the champions by putting Kyle Lafferty up against the perceived weak link in the Hoops defence, Mikael Lustig. But it failed to pay off as the Swede snuffed out the ineffectual former Hearts hitman.
It was evident early on Rangers were nowhere near hitting the levels Celtic were capable of, with the Hoops racking up an astonishing 75 per cent of the possession during the first half.
Having played with just nine men for the final half-hour of Thursday night’s Europa League clash in Ufa, Gers looked in need of fresh legs.
But Gerrard waited until the 81st minute to introduce youngster Glenn Middleton then threw on Daniel Candeias with three minutes left.
Neither was able to inspire a fightback.
Rodgers had the luxury of replacing £9million Odsonne Eduoard with another proven scorer in Leigh Griffiths and the Scotland hitman came close twice.
Gerrard has made Rangers a tougher nut to crack and will argue they would have suffered a heavier defeat last term.
But he will still have to make huge improvements to the way his side take care of the ball if they are to topple Rodgers’ team from their perch.