Soccer

Rangers rampage old foes Celtic in Old Firm clash at Ibrox

The scale of Celtic’s ineptitude in this 3-0 defeat had to be seen to be believed

Rangers' Robin Propper scores his side's second goal of the game. Photograph: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire
Rangers' Robin Propper scores his side's second goal of the game. Photograph: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire
Ewan Murray
Thu Jan 02 2025 - 19:35
Scottish Premiership: Rangers 3 (Hagi 7, Propper 66, Danilo 81) Celtic 0

Celtic’s job is to prove this Old Firm outcome proves nowhere near as significant as Rangers would like it to be. One glance at the Scottish Premiership table – Celtic still lead their old adversaries by 11 points and 20-odd goals – suggests Brendan Rodgers and his players can achieve that. It is simply that the scale of Celtic’s ineptitude in this 3-0 defeat had to be seen to be believed. Not one element of their team functioned properly.

Rangers opened 2025 in swashbuckling style against rattled, ragged opposition. This was a puzzling Celtic afternoon, one which is bound to trigger speculation about complacency with title retention already all but guaranteed.

To his credit, Rodgers did nothing to sugarcoat his side’s display. The Celtic manager told his players at half-time they surely could not be as poor in the second 45 minutes. If the visitors did improve, it was only marginal. Over two spells and 21 derbies, this was by far the poorest account a Rodgers team has given against Rangers.

“It wouldn’t matter if we were 50 points clear,” he said. “Celtic-Rangers is everything for our supporters, for people everywhere. But we never played with that edge and that personality that the team has shown consistently. We were just very passive, I felt, today, which is unlike us. We were punished for that.”

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Rodgers had planned to start his record signing, Arne Engels, in midfield. The Belgian was unwell after waking up on Thursday and instead had to settle for a place on the bench. While that can be categorised as bad fortune, others elements of Celtic’s output were by design. It was curious, for example, that Rodgers opted not to deploy the physical Adam Idah from the outset against a makeshift – and tame – Rangers defence.

Liam Kelly, the home side’s backup goalkeeper, was not tested until first-half stoppage time. That Auston Trusty was left out as Liam Scales partnered Cameron Carter-Vickers in central defence was equally questionable. Trusty was a £6m summer purchase, surely on the basis of performing on stages such as this. It felt strange that it took 64 minutes for Rodgers to turn to his substitutes. No sooner had he done so than Robin Pröpper slammed home Rangers’ second goal. Game over. Even before illness Engels, Trusty and Idah had not played nearly as regularly as combined price tags suggest they should have done.

Ianis Hagi of Rangers and Alistair Johnston of Celtic battle for a header. Photograph: Ian MacNicol/Getty
Ianis Hagi of Rangers and Alistair Johnston of Celtic battle for a header. Photograph: Ian MacNicol/Getty

Rangers will understandably rail against intense focus on Celtic. This was a much-needed, marquee moment for Philippe Clement. The low-key atmosphere around Ibrox before kick-off told a story of nervous fans, fearing another damaging afternoon. Rangers had a left-back playing at right-back. Instead, Clement has secured a maiden derby victory. He did so in such comfortable fashion it was surely beyond his wildest new year dreams.

In front of his famous father, Gheorghe, Ianis Hagi set the tone. The midfielder’s finish was accurate rather than powerful after a lay off from Nico Raskin. Kasper Schemeichel watched the ball nestle in the bottom left corner of his net. Raskin was to enjoy an outstanding afternoon in blue. Scales had earlier and cheaply conceded possession.

As a deflected Vaclav Cerny shot hit the crossbar, Celtic were rocking. Carter-Vickers produced a goal-saving challenge on Mohamed Diomande. Celtic needed half-time for a reset that never materialised. Watching this, Rodgers’ desire to return Kieran Tierney to green and white became perfectly easy to comprehend.

Raskin snapped and snarled as Celtic’s midfield was overrun. Nedim Bajrami excelled at finding pockets of space in Rangers attacking areas. Cerny came even closer to number two, his effort rebounding from the inside of a Schmeichel post. Celtic failed to heed the warning, Raskin’s header from a Cerny corner blocked before the much maligned Pröpper found the net. Rodgers had called for Idah merely 120 seconds earlier.

There was no sense of Celtic making Rangers sweat for their win thereafter. Indeed, gloss was added to the scoreline for Clement as Danilo pounced on a loose ball for number three. At this point, Rangers’ supporters were surely bemoaning the absence of a Celtic following inside their stadium. There was, after all, nobody to gloat towards.

“I knew in June that this was a really, really big challenge,” said Clement. “I do it because I love this club so much; the fans and everybody in the building. This is a massive club but we’re not yet where we want to be and I want to be part of that to get this club back to the level it needs to be.”

Clement’s challenge is to avoid the one step forward, two steps back policy of recent times. Rodgers must decipher how on earth this outcome happened. His own professional pride will ensure he never wants it to happen again. – Guardian