Rangers - 0 Celtic - 1 The Scots are getting frisky again. The national team, after that most hideous of beginnings, when they drew 2-2 against the Faroe Islands, are, improbably, within reach of qualification for Euro 2004, while Rangers and Celtic have made fruitful starts to the Champions League. So for once, the Old Firm derby shed its parochial insularity and encompassed wider issues. Passion was out of fashion.

Arsenal's unsteady opening in Europe, coupled with midweek defeats for Manchester United and Chelsea, have apparently convinced some commentators in Scotland that the gap between the top of the Premiership and the SPL is shrinking. Celtic's success in the UEFA Cup last season strengthened this conviction, while the coming matches between Rangers and Manchester United will further explore the notion.

So was this perhaps why Saturday's match, while not exactly being all croissant and café au lait, was a chip off the continental block rather than the lunging blow of an axe cutting through rival communities? When, for instance, was the last time a manager of either Rangers or Celtic - and on this occasion it was Alex McLeish - spoke of his team in the context of an Old Firm derby as being "too technical"?

It would be naive to suppose that either McLeish or Martin O'Neill had somehow downgraded this first meeting of the season. However, seen through the eyes of both ambition and finance, the Champions League is their current priority and it was against this European backdrop that the match unfolded in European guise. It was never less than intriguing, but always cerebral rather than visceral.

Scarcely surprising perhaps, given the United Nations make-up of both teams. True, there was much on-the-pitch bonding and ritualistic salutes to the fans just prior to the midday kick-off, but here were two sides playing out a pre-match ceremony rather than sharing any atavistic abhorrence of each other. And a mightily good thing too.

Celtic won, thereby taking over at the top of the SPL and ending Rangers' opening run of seven successive league victories, because adversity spurred them on that little bit harder.

This was a makeshift Celtic defence and in consequence every member of the team, from John Hartson backwards, worked for each other with disciplined zeal. Rangers, by comparison, never hinted that they were prepared to force the issue beyond the routine. They badly needed a touch of anarchy, someone who would push matters beyond mere symmetry. But their methods of attack were disappointingly unimaginative and provided the scratch defensive pairing of Stanislav Varga and Chris Sutton with few alarms.

Against Lyon, Sutton began in midfield, just behind the front two, and finished a striker. On this occasion, using a favourite O'Neill word, he was "immense" at the back.

The same was true in attack of Hartson, who would have put Celtic ahead in the first half but for a wonderful reflex save by Stefan Klos. The goal would have been his but for a deflection off Zurab Khizanishvili and then the underside of the bar, a combination that denied the Welshman deserved reward for his constant unsettling of the home defence.

Hartsonis a softly spoken man off the field but not somebody you'd want to tangle with on it.

It is 16 weeks since the back operation which caused him to miss the UEFA Cup final, and only now is he beginning to move freely. Both he and Henrik Larsson were limited in their attacking options, given the need for defensive duties, but nevertheless Celtic created the better openings throughout, with Hartson winning almost everything in the air.

O'Neill was obviously the happier of the two managers and blinked a little owlishly when it was suggested that the match had been tame. "You may well be right, but you should have seen my heart rate."

Just as on the pitch, the post-match analysis veered towards the technical. O'Neill was never once overtly triumphal, seeing the win as "a boost" and nothing more, while McLeish was equally balanced, feeling no need to search for tangential excuses. And if this all seems tame and even-tempered, then so it was and none the worse for it. Which is not to say Old Firm passion is dead or has been Europeanised into oblivion. One down, three to go.