Kai Watson: Another Old Firm of Two Halves
Well, well, well, another incredibly unpredictable weekend in the Scottish Premiership ended with Rangers hosting Celtic at Ibrox yesterday. Much like the reverse fixture in January, it was truly a game of two halves and almost ended up exactly like the previous fixture.
In January, Celtic dominated the first half and definitely should have scored more than one goal. Rangers came out for the second half filled with hunger and intensity and ended up deserved 3-1 victors.
This game on Sunday felt of a much larger magnitude than the previous meeting though, we are now into March and Hearts still top the table with both Old Firm sides chasing their tail. It’s not a flash in the pan Derek McInnes’ side being top at this point and now they are surely favourites for the title.
Rangers started off on the front foot, playing with a lot of aggression and positivity. In fact, it only took until the right minute mark for the deadlock to be broken. Some good work from Rommens on the left led to the ball finding Mikey Moore who passed it out to Dujon Sterling. He then played a ball round the corner for Skov-Olsen who took on Scales and dinked a lovely right footed cross into the middle of the box, Chermiti seen it, took a step back and connected with an incredible overhead kick past Sinisalo, if you haven’t seen it, go watch it!
Rangers were constantly pressing and putting Celtic under pressure and the Ibrox crowd was fully behind them. Then on the 26th minute, Raskin clipped a ball towards Chermiti which Dane Murray swung his left foot at and sliced behind him. The ball bounced over Araujo’s head and the Portuguese striker used his long legs to flick the ball around the Celtic defender back into his path and with the outside of his right foot, flicked a delicate finish beyond the goalkeeper to make it 2-0.
It was a well deserved lead at the break and Rangers were probably annoyed they didn’t go in with a bigger lead.
Celtic made two changes at half time with Hatate coming on for Oxlade-Chamberlain and Tounetki for Adamu as Maeda moved into the striker position, However, Rangers could have killed the game just after half-time as Moore’s cross was flicked onto the back post where Rommens was running in but his finish was weak and lacked conviction.
It was a massive chance and potentially a sliding doors moment in the title race as, after that, it was all Celtic.
They got back into the game after some good work from Hatate who found McGregor just inside the box and he bounced it off to Nygren who took a touch then dinked a lovely ball in between the Rangers defenders and found Tierney who headed the ball back into the ground and past Butland. After that it was wave after wave of Celtic attack with Rangers not offering much at the other end.
Daizen Maeda and Luke McCowan had massive chances to equalise but Butland saved both of their efforts. Then, in the 86th minute, James Forrest done brilliantly out on the right to clip a cross into the middle of the six-yard box which Maeda met and, initially, it looked like a huge miss and a brilliant Butland save.
It was a brilliant save from the goalkeeper but VAR noticed the ball came off of Dujon Sterling’s hand and after John Beaton was sent to the screen, he made the correct decision and awarded a penalty.
Hatate, who had changed the game for Celtic, stepped up from the spot and tried to go low to Butland’s right but the goalkeeper made a brilliant save. The Japanese midfielder was the first to the rebound but Butland saved AGAIN but could only palm it back into Hatate’s path who, at the third time of asking, found the equaliser!
It was no more than Celtic deserved and, in the end, they had plenty of chances and could have won it. Another truly incredible match in a season of incredible matches.
This was the ideal result for Hearts who sit six clear of Rangers on the same number of games played and eight clear of Celtic but they have a game in hand. It’s now onto Wednesday evening where Martin O’Neil’s side travel to Pittodrie and a victory will take them above Rangers into second place and five behind Hearts with nine games to go.
Who is your favourite for the title now?
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