Alan Shearer aghast after awful Rangers vs Celtic experience as Gary Lineker sends one side a crumb of comfort
The English football icons were left stunned by the lack of quality in the recent Rangers vs Celtic clash.
England heroes Alan Shearer and Gary Lineker have been left perplexed after tuning into the most recent instalment of Rangers vs Celtic.
The latest Old Firm derby in the Premiership and the first of this season in a drab 0-0. Neither side’s keeper was overly tested in a game of few chances and even less quality/ It is what both sides have had to stew on over the international break ahead of their respective returns to action this weekend.
Rangers host Hearts and Celtic are away at Kilmarnock. Scotland have also played out tight affairs over the international break with a 0-0 draw at Denmark and 2-0 victory in Hungary against Belarus. This got Shearer, Lineker and ex-Man City defender Micah Richards talking on the Rest is Football Podcast.
Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer react to Old Firm derby
Scotland’s display had impressed Richards, who said: “I played with the Scots. I love the Scots. I watched the game, though. I didn’t watch when they won (against Belarus). I watched the 0-0 vs Denmark. I actually really enjoyed the game. It was weird because Scotland just couldn’t get out, no matter what – but actually, Scotland defended really well when they needed to.”
Shearer had remarked the Denmark draw was a tough draw before Lineker revealed to the panel that it was 1998 you would have to go back to for the nation’s last World Cup appearance. The ex-Newcastle United man then revealed his recent foray north of the border where he was met with a Rangers and Celtic slugfest.
He said: “I was in Scotland last week. I didn’t go to the game, but I watched it with a load of Scotsmen, watching Rangers v Celtic, and that was dreadful.” He added later in the conversation: “Oh, God. How bad was that?!”
Rangers vs Celtic reaction
Lineker responded, with some slight praise for Rangers, but that’s all the positives that could be mustered: “Oh, I watched that game. I watched it all. It was poor. I mean, Rangers were okay in the first half, but in the second half, there was nothing. No efforts at goal or anything. There wasn’t much quality on display there. Thankfully, their national team is performing slightly better.”
Ibrox head coach Russell Martin said of the game: "I hope they saw that the players were running for them, for each other, for the coaching staff, fighting for everything. But I can't control that (what others think about him). So I'll just control the work we do, I feel well supported by the ownership group and everyone at the club. I feel like they so want this to work and succeed and over time, we need to win football matches for everyone outside of the club to feel the same way. We need to build on this.”
Celtic counterpart Brendan Rodgers added: “We have a lot of work to do but we need the competition in the squad and creativity to take the game to the level we want to. We want to pad out the squad with more quality, more speed and more creativity. Hopefully we can do that. There are a number of areas we need to freshen up."