CELTIC STEPPING UP TITLE MARCH
Postecoglou’s men 12 points clear as Rangers are pipped in a derby thriller
TAKEN on its own merits, this was quite the ding-dong derby. Yet for all the goals and drama infused in this five-goal thriller, the end result only served to smooth Celtic’s procession towards a second successive Premiership title.
A 12-point gap and superior goal difference means that Ange Postecoglou’s side can be crowned champions on the first post-split fixture later this month.
Yet outside of a solitary outlier of a defeat at St Mirren last September, this was as uncomfortable a game as Celtic have had all season.
For Michael Beale, still in the infancy of his tenure as Rangers manager, there was plenty here to work with going forward.
This season’s title has now gone but there is still a Scottish Cup semi-final to be played between these teams at Hampden, crucially in front of a split audience.
And looking ahead to next season’s reset, Beale can also reflect on the fact his team did not buckle in front of a wholly partisan crowd in Glasgow’s east end.
Denied the opening goal by a contentious decision and undone by two second-half brain-freeze moments by his centre-backs Ben Davies and John Souttar, Rangers were competitive and showed none of the timidity that saw them demolished in the first half of their last visit to Parkhead under Giovanni van Bronckhorst.
And yet it was Celtic who again turned their moments of adversity on their head, the deadly Kyogo Furuhashi scoring twice in a repeat of the salvo that secured the League Cup back in February.
The last time Rangers won here it was courtesy of two-goal defender Connor Goldson in an empty stadium locked down under Covid restrictions in 2020.
The absence of the defender — Rangers’ chief organiser — with a hip injury was both a surprise and a blow to Beale’s game plan and in his place came Souttar, who was short of minutes after an ankle problem.
Overall, the defender acquitted himself well but learned a valuable lesson as he erred for the odd goal in the five, leaving a back-pass short that invited Jota to score Celtic’s third.
Criticised for not starting his new signings Todd Cantwell and Nico Raskin in the League Cup final meeting, Beale included both here to try to wrest some control away from the home team.
In this win-or-bust situation, they had nothing to gain by standing off the game and forced a few early jitters in the home defence.
Yet Celtic finally pieced together a move it ended with Kyogo placing the ball beyond Allan McGregor, albeit from an offside position as he latched on to Alistair Johnston’s clipped pass to chest then whip the ball through the Rangers’ goalkeeper’s legs.
Pre-match, Beale had spoken of referee Kevin Clancy being under immense pressure due to the partisan crowd and his players were clearly under instruction to apply even more
A rash Cameron Carter-Vickers tackle on Alfredo Morelos probably deserved a yellow but the Colombian’s performative reaction, and the immediate surge of blue shirts towards the official amplified Rangers’ case.
Midway through the half, the referee had his first major call to make as Beale’s team put the ball in the net from a set-piece.
Morelos and Johnston had a hold of each other as Borna Barisic’s back-post delivery dropped from the air and off the striker’s leg as the Celtic full-back tumbled theatrically.
Clancy quickly signalled for a free-kick before the customary VAR check.
If the technology’s purpose is to root out clear and obvious errors, then the decision to let the referee’s decision stand was correct as there did seem to be a shove at the vital moment. Yet this was still a major let-off for the home side.
And they took full advantage. McGregor had been busy to keep out his namesake Callum and Jota before he found that even a twohanded connection was not enough to keep out Kyogo’s power-packed finish.
Yet the Japanese’s strike was merely the fourth in a succession of sublime touches.
First Matt O’Riley changed direction as he received Greg Taylor’s pass and then cleverly reversed the ball for Kyogo, who befuddled Davies with his movement away from goal. A killer piece of control set him for the swivel and strike that had too much for McGregor.
Briefly, Rangers wobbled as Jota started to stretch and twist the visitors with a series of runs, twists and crosses. Yet Rangers were not going to go under. Not this time
Raskin’s refusal to give Celtic the ball back sparked a rare loss of composure form Celtic captain McGregor and both were booked as the visitors regained balance.
The equaliser arrived on the cusp of half-time. Malik Tillman, having his most impressive derby outing yet, had dragged a shot just wide of Joe Hart’s goal and a sure touch committed O’Riley to a cautionable foul 25 yards from goal.
Slightly left of centre, the angle just about favoured James Tavernier over Barisic and he took full advantage, whipping a wonderful shot in off the underside of Hart’s crossbar for his 99th Rangers goal.
The away dressing-room would have been a happier sanctuary at half-time and the vibe perhaps ought to have been enhanced five minutes after the resumption.
It’s been a while since Morelos mined his best form in front of goal but even at his apex, the Rangers striker was a panicky finisher in this fixture. A more cultured marksman might have opted to curl the ball towards the far corner as a wayward Johnston header fell into his path, but instead Morelos reverted for brute power and the flat shot made for a straightforward Hart save.
Morelos’s technical deficiency was nothing compared to the calamity that befell Ben Davies at the other end.
Intercepting a low cross from Jota, the former Preston stopper spooned his clearance high into the sky. Having made a mess of his first connection, he had another chance to intervene with the head but got his feet all wrong as the ball dropped near the goalline.
Jota, who’d followed in hopefully rather than in any expectation, claimed an unexpected assist as the ball broke kindly into the path of Kyogo who scored.
Hitherto resolute and composed, Souttar contracted whatever contagion had afflicted his defensive sidekick. Normally so assured in possession, he sold his keeper short with an undercooked, badly angled execution that
presented Jota with his moment. The Portuguese skipped gleefully away from McGregor and clipped the ball home from a tight angle with his left foot.
So often criticised for wilting in the big games, Tavernier continued to carry the fight to Celtic and hit the century mark.
Following a set-piece, fellow wing-back Barisic swung over a cross from the right and Tavernier pounced at the back post to plant a header down and away from Hart.
And so a stadium that had plunged headlong into title party mode was reined in by the prospect of a Rangers resurgence.
Their anxiety ought to have been calmed as their two substitutes combined to carve out a clear chance to score.
South Korean striker Oh played his part to perfection as he held off Souttar to play in Alexandro Bernabei. A scorer at Ross County last weekend, the Argentinian fullback’s scoring instincts deserted him as he bore down on McGregor, choosing to pass to an invisible team-mate rather than apply the necessary finish.