Individual duels where the Old Firm clash was decided
THE KEY BATTLES
ON page one of the managerial handbook is written the instruction that all players must follow first and above all else: win your battle. And there is no doubt that it was Celtic who won a majority of the individual duels on the day at Hampden to progress to the Scottish Cup final with relative ease.
Here, SportTimes takes a look at some of the key contests that resulted in Celtic’s passage to the season’s showpiece.
Dembele getting a free header from a Sinclair corner within the first minute was a glimpse of what was to come, and the Celtic frontman got free again far too easily to set up the opener for Callum McGregor. The striker pulled his right hamstring just before the half hour and had to limp off, which must have come as a relief to Wilson. Until he saw Leigh Griffiths coming on to replace the young Frenchman, that is.
An unlikely match-up, but with the Rangers captain deployed in midfield he came up against his Hoops counterpart, and it was the Celtic man’s greater experience in the role that won the day.
Brown controlled the midfield area, biting into tackles, reading the game with ease and showing composure on the ball.
Miller just couldn’t get on the ball enough, but he did bring two saves from Craig Gordon with a free header and a sidefoot shot, then put a lob just over when he was pushed into a more advanced area where he is more comfortable.
Brown collected the man of the match award to underline his dominance.
Roberts clearly fancied himself against the young Maltese full-back, and Andy Halliday picked up a booking in the opening stages coming over to cover and being forced into a foul. The youngster then picked up a booking of his own as his frustration boiled over, and the punishment might have been worse as he lunged in recklessly on the Manchester City loanee. Roberts drew another foul from him moments later in a dangerous position, and one way or another it didn’t look as though Beerman would last the 90. The young man deserves credit for hanging in there, and it was a day that may prove invaluable to him as a footballing lesson.
The Rangers forward was almost anonymous in the first half as Simunovic and Dedryck Boyata dominated, but he survived Pedro Caixinha’s half-time cull to influence a little more after the break.
Simunovic was slack on a couple of occasions to give Waghorn some decent of sights of goal, but the forward’s blushes were spared by a late flag after slicing one high and wide, and then he let Simunovic off the hook when he put a free header miles over.
Was set up to be an intriguing one, but in truth the young Celtic left-back dominated his side of the pitch in the early stages. Tierney spent most of the first half in Gers territory, and although Tavernier tried to push on when he could as the game wore on, it was Tierney who looked the most likely to create something.
Joe Dodoo was pushed over to the Rangers right to give his team-mate a hand late on which pushed Tierney a little further back, and Tavernier took advantage to get one or two decent balls in. By that time though the game was gone.
One of McGregor’s best performances in a Celtic jersey, and not just for his brilliantlytaken opener, when he ran off the Rangers midfield and produced a wonderfully composed finish from the edge of the box.
The Celtic man was always a step ahead of Holt, and indeed Halliday, and as a result Rangers were unable to really get any meaningful possession in the middle of the park.
Holt would have been glad to have seen the back of the hardworking midfielder when he was given a rest with 15 minutes left.