Champagne on ice for Celtic as Rangers battle back for draw
Celtic must wait a little longer than they and their supporters had hoped to celebrate becoming Scottish champions for a 52nd time. delaying what is still surely the inevitable outcome to this title race, Rangers produced a performance at Celtic Park which they could reasonably claim merited the victory they needed to inject any credible sense of jeopardy into the final three rounds of fixtures.
The defending champions displayed character and purpose in responding to Jota’s 21st minute opener for Celtic, levelling through Fashion Sakala midway through the second half and finishing the stronger side.
But Celtic are on the verge of reclaiming the Premiership crown for good reason. Even when not at their cohesive best under Ange Postecoglou, they possess a resilience which has underpinned an unbeaten league run which now stretches to 29 matches.
Their six-point lead over Rangers remains intact, with a vastly superior goal difference offering additional insurance as they look to cross the winning line at some stage of their remaining games against Hearts, Dundee United and Motherwell.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst and his players know that their own pursuit of silverware must now focus on the Europa League, where they face RB Leipzig in the second leg of their semi-final at Ibrox on Thursday, and the Scottish Cup final against Hearts.
But there was certainly no hint of concession to that scenario in van Bronckhorst’s team selection or in the manner his players approached the match.
The three changes he made – Steven Davis, Scott Arfield and Sakala replacing Ryan Jack, Glen Kamara and Scott Wright – could not be construed as fielding a weakened side with Leipzig in mind.
As they attempted to put the chastening experience of their 3-0 defeat at this venue in February behind them, Rangers made the brighter start on this occasion and should have forged a lead in a highly progressive first 20 minutes.
Had Borna Barisic and Ryan Kent not got in each other’s way inside the Celtic area in the third minute, it might have come their way then.
It should have done so in the 13th minute when James Tavernier provided a cross from the right which saw Kent steal a yard on Anthony Ralston at the far post. It was a glorious opportunity for the winger but he made poor contact with the ball and sent it wide of Joe Hart’s right-hand post.
Celtic had struggled to make the kind of dynamic opening to the contest which has so often been their trademark under Postecoglou but that became of no relevance to the expectant home crowd when their team opened the scoring with their first significant attacking foray of the afternoon.
Neat link-up play down the left involving call ummc greg or and Reo Hatate allowed Greg Taylor to advance and play a smart pass to Daizen Maeda inside the area.
The Japanese forward drove the ball across the face of the six-yard box and Jota got in front of the flat-footed Barisic. The Portuguese winger made no mistake, guiding the ball beyond Allan Mcgregor for his 12th goal of a productive season.
As Rangers tried to regroup, an error from Arfield should have led to Celtic doubling their lead in the 32nd minute. Possession was lost carelessly to Hatate whose cross from the right was headed over by Jota from close range.
Rangers continued to enjoy good spells of possession but despite the best efforts of Joe Aribo in his unfamiliar cenin
tral role up front, lacked a focal point in the final third of the pitch.
Sakala should have done better when he pounced on an error from Carl Starfelt, the Zambian forward showing a lack of awareness as he tried to go on his own into the area rather than picking out a pass to the unmarked Aribo.
Celtic passed up another premium opportunity to secure a more commanding position before the interval when a lack of conviction from Maeda, picked out by Jota’s superb cross, saw him head wide from close range as Mcgregor advanced towards him.
Rangers made a positive start to the second half, Connor Goldson heading over after a Sakala header from Tavernier’s corner had been blocked by Matt O’riley, but Maeda wasted a further chance to put the task all but beyond the visitors when he hoisted a shot over from a great position with only Mcgregor to beat.
Celtic enjoyed their best spell of the second half after Giorgos Giakoumakis, Tom Rogic and Nir Bitton were all introduced to the fray but their momentum was dramatically jolted by Sakala’s 67th minute equaliser.
Wright, who had replaced Aribo, drove forward on the right and fed Sakala who played a neat exchange of passes with Kent on the edge of the Celtic area before threading a left-foot shot between the unconvincing Hart and his right-hand post.
As Rangers pushed hard for a winner, the Celtic goalkeeper redeemed himself more than once. He did well to turn over a shot from Sakala, then made a crucial save to deny Arfield from close range after Wright had created the opening.
With Goldson pushing forward to join the attack, Rangers went for broke in the closing stages and came close to grabbing all three points when Sakala surged into the box yet again but his shot hit the post.