I watched Celtic vs Rangers from press box: 3 things I spotted as classic serves bonkers derby for the ages

Celtic achieved a 5-4 penalty shootout win against Rangers in the Premier Sports Cup final, following a 3-3 draw after extra-time.

The first big chance of the game came to Nicolas Kuhn who raced behind the blue defensive line and forced keeper Jack Butland to react. That came after defender Leon Balogun made an excellent tackle to stop Celtic speed merchant Daizen Maeda racing through on goal.

Both teams adopted the up and at them approach but that final piece of quality in the last third of the pitch was missing. Nedim Bajrami’s solo run and shot couldn’t find the target with this one lurching into the scrappy domain. He would not be denied before the break, a poor Greg Taylor pass intercepted and eventually punished by the Albanian international after Kasper Schmeichel saved Hamza Igamane’s initial effort.

Cue the abundance of Celtic errors near their own goal and Igamane really should have found one of a few teammates in the box when another Taylor error allowed him in on goal. Kyogo then missed a huge chance up the other end that looked to be well-saved by Butland, Taylor soon redeeming himself with a deflected effort past the Englishman.

It was all going to plan for Rangers but the roof cracked after that and then caved when the otherwise impressive Nicolas Raskin botched a pass, Maeda doing well to bring the ball down and finishing low into the corner. To the Ibrox club’s credit, they rallied again after two bruising blows, Mohamed Diomande firing into the net to level this up heading into the final 15 minutes.

It’ll go down as a final classic but in the moment it was a showpiece for the lovers of bonkers. No sooner had Kuhn looked to have fired Celtic into a win, Danilo was up the other end levelling things up. It was on a knife edge and as tired bodies crept into extra-time, this was truly anybody’s game, but perhaps fittingly, penalties were needed with nothing to split the teams.

It stood 3-3 before Schmeichel saved a penalty from Ridvan Yilmaz. It left the bizarre situation of Butland vs the Dane, the Rangers keeper scoring to keep the shootout alive, as Maeda netted the winning penalty. I was at Hampden for the match. Here are three things I spotted.

A sign of things to come?

If this match were to be played four weeks ago, you get the feeling this would have been a Celtic waltz. But in the short-term sphere of football, a lot can change rapidly. Moving to two striker has changed this Rangers side for the better and they are now beginning to put points on the board couple with good performances. Here, they matched and even bettered Celtic in spells. A key downfall has been losing the head when the Hoops go through their gears. They threatened to do that again but recovered and took this game all the way. but it shows that Rangers can be more than a match for Celtic, they just need to take care of business in other matches. That said, even when they weren’t at their best,. And that will be of great delight to the Hoops and dismay to those on the other side of the city.

Maeda vs Tav

This is the battle that people had earmarked at the start of the game, as the Celtic winger has had the better of the Rangers captain in many of their match-ups. Yes, Maeda did score so ultimately you would have to just about edge him in this battle again. But Tavernier fared better in the one vs one duels and Raskin came across when needed to help out.

Pyro aplenty

The SPFL sent a message pre-game urging fans against the use of pyrotechnics and this warning was not heeded by both sets, who deployed plenty of them. Granted, the delay to kick-off here wasn’t close to the timescales of the semi-final matches but it’s another reminder that stronger deterrents will be needed to kick pyro out the game, or a conversation is needed for how they can be used safely.