Timid Rangers let Celtic stroll to final
Brendan Rodgers cited humility as a Celtic character trait in the buildup to this match, but it was Rangers who were humbled yet again by an emphatic Old Firm derby defeat.
Tempting as it is to declare that Celtic strode into the William Hill Scottish Cup final against Motherwell next month, the truth was that their progress was a stroll. For all of Graeme Murty’s talk of using the pain of defeat in last month’s derby at Ibrox as a motivational tool for this encounter, the Rangers manager was at an utter loss to explain why his players stood off Celtic.
The cost to Murty of this setback will be the loss of his place on the shortlist of candidates when the Ibrox board considers who should be in charge next season.
Only Celtic exceed them in financial clout in Scotland, but a gulf remains and Rangers will struggle to emerge as plausible contenders for domestic honours, while Murty’s players looked timid from the start.
Rangers’ advanced midfielders stood off their opposite numbers, a fatal error which permitted Scott Brown, Olivier Ntcham, and Tom Rogic to dominate, with James Forrest and Callum Mcgregor allowed to roam the flanks, all to the advantage of Moussa Dembele who, after just five minutes, volleyed a lofted pass from Ntcham in off a post.
Dembele and Forrest then combined to find Rogic in the box and the Australian spun Ross Mccrorie off balance before shooting past Wes Foderingham.
Russell Martin could then do no better than turn a Kieran Tierney cross into the path of Mcgregor, who drove it beyond Foderingham.
Within five minutes of the restart, Dembele got goal-side of Mccrorie, who had three yanks at the striker’s jersey before finally toppling him inside the box. The outcome was Mccrorie’s dismissal and a conversion from the spot.
Jason Holt fouled Patrick Roberts – who had replaced Forrest – for another penalty, which was tucked away by Ntcham for Celtic’s fourth.
Between times, Rangers might have scored three, but Craig Gordon produced spectacular one-armed blocks on headers from Alfredo Morelos and Bruno Alves. The goalkeeper was, however, beaten by a wild slice from his right-back, Mikael Lustig, which ricocheted off the crossbar. The rebound, though, fell to Morelos, who extended his impeccable record of missing gift chances in Old Firm derbies, by shooting straight at Gordon.
Celtic’s devotion to humility was not evident in Brown’s response to victory, when the captain was reminded that Rangers had cheered the semi-final draw which paired them with Celtic. “I don’t think they’ll be cheering tonight,” he said. “We just knew as soon as we turned up that we’d win it.”
Murty was mired in frustration. “We just didn’t get close to anyone, it took half an hour to make a tackle,” he said. “I’ll apologise for the first half. We need to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
For Rodgers, the focus is upon closing two imminent deals. “The important thing now is to close up the league,” he said “The final will be tough. Motherwell won’t make it easy.”