Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
GERS A TOUCH ANGRY
It all gets a bit heated at Ibrox as Gers gaffer Pedro loses the plot with Hoops skipper Brown
RAGING Rangers boss Pedro Caixinha accused Scott Brown of elbowing Alfredo Morelos – and warned the Celtic skipper that he wouldn’t have got away with it had HE been on the park.
The Ibrox gaffer was furious at half-time in yesterday’s 2-0 Old Firm defeat, claiming that Brown had struck the face of the
ONE manager turned the tide. The other stood shouting at it like King Canute, wondering why it wouldn’t turn back.
It’s now been 500 days since anyone last laid a glove on Celtic. Fifty seven games unbeaten.
So if a team with as much to prove as Rangers did yesterday can’t even get within touching distance – far less land a punch – we may as well already declare the season a TKO.
Hold Celtic’s arms aloft right now.
Two goals in 16 minutes from Tom Rogic and Leigh Griffiths sealed Rangers’ fate, creating an eight-point chasm between them already with only seven games gone.
It could have been more, though – a bucketload more – by the end, but once again the fact the closing exchanges were played out in front of a sea of folded-back blue seats told its own story.
In the opening exchanges, Celtic knifed their way through and around Rangers like they weren’t there, the swiftness of their interplay finely honed, and everything Rangers did to counteract it had a whiff of desperation about it.
But gradually, very gradually, they settled. Made it a contest.
They were still the inferior football side. Patrick Roberts was taking Lee Hodson for a ride at times, with not enough end product, and Stuart Armstrong was causing problems inside left with his mobility.
Josh Windass was showing composure, and teenage stopper Ross McCrorie in particular was excelling. With Cardoso’s limited experience beside him, you’d have forgiven the kid for nerves, but he barely put a foot wrong, with or without the ball.
Clear-cut chances? Few and far between. Rogic saw a great effort topped over the in the first minute, Griffiths sent an early free-kick whistling wide, and put a decent chance at the back post over with his head when McCrorie unexpectedly let the ball fly over him.
And at the other end, Alfredo Morelos was a split second late arriving for a very tempting James Tavernier ball.
There were a couple of penalty shouts before the break as well, Morelos and Roberts both going down, but neither troubled Craig Thomson.
But while the ref was doing his best to let the game flow, there was a growing feeling he was making a rod for his own back. He’d let at least three go which would have been cast iron yellows every other week of the year.
When he did eventually get the book out, for a late one by Morelos on Dedryck Boyata, he was met with the inevitable deluge of whataboutery for everything he had ignored previously.
The antagonism manifested itself in the wake his whistle at the break as well, Pedro Caixinha and Scott Brown going nose to nose in a spat both of them should have been smart enough to avoid.
Celtic found another gear after the break and within five minutes they were ahead, albeit with a slice of good fortune.
Roberts may have fluffed his shot from Griffiths’ corner on the edge of the box, but lines weren’t cleared by Hodson, McCrorie or Cardoso and Rogic took full advantage to rifle one into the top corner.
It’s just the latest in a long line of crucial goals from the elegant Aussie. In fairness, Rangers didn’t completely cave they way they had back in April. In fact, they could, maybe even should have been level, within five minutes.
Kenny Miller had replaced Pena – a move which probably would have benefitted them before the team sheets were printed - and he instantly teed up Morelos with a great chance.
But Craig Gordon pulled off a stunning – if unconventional – point-blank stop, and from there on in, it was game over.
Roberts’ sweet slide rule through in the 66th minute, Griffiths’ right foot finish, they just put the tin lid on it.
Sub Moussa Dembele could have added, as could Armstrong and Sinclair, but the message was clear enough. Welcome to another MATCH one-horse REPORT: race.SEE