Well, that was worth the wait. 1008 days. 24,192 hours. 1,451,520 minutes. 87,091,200 seconds. The time that had elapsed since the last Old Firm meeting. On top of that there was three months of build up which intensified in the last couple of weeks to the point that you may have believed the world had stopped in anticipation towards this clash at Hampden.
Without Rangers in the top division we were told it would be Armageddon. We were reminded that this is the greatest fixture in world football We were fed the line that Scottish football needed the Old Firm derby. After that, those claims weren’t so much rubbished as spectacularly laughed off.
After three weeks of inactivity, and what would have been an eternity of thinking about how best to tackle Celtic, Kenny McDowall opted for an ultra-cautious 4-5-1 system with the favoured target for their aerial assault John Daly left on the bench. Kenny Miller took on the hard-working lone striker role which he made his own for Scotland, supported by a conservative midfield of Ian Black, Kyle Hutton and Nicky Law, flanked by wide men Steven Smith and Fraser Aird who have as much creativity as those powers-that-be who renamed the Scottish leagues.
The line-up and set-up would transpire to be wrong. Very wrong.
Ronny Deila went for an attacking line-up with his on-form players. John Guidetti was left on the bench having not netted since the Hoops’ defeat of Heart of Midlothian. Looking slightly overweight he was denied the chance to score the hat-trick he promised. Instead Leigh Griffiths, who is looking more at home at Celtic Park after every performance, led the line.
Immediately it was clear that Celtic would be given space to play. The pitch at Scotland’s national stadium was an aberration and throughout the game it was more of a hindrance to Celtic than Rangers. Rangers sat off and sat off attempting to deny Stefan Johansen, Kris Commons and Anthony Stokes space to play. Yet the midfield five was flat and when Celtic came into dangerous areas there was little pressure on the ball.
The case in point being the opening goal. Possession was comfortable move out to the advancing Mikael Lustig – with little opposition and Rangers so deep the full-backs played as wing-backs – who won a throw-in. With deep defences Celtic need to play quick and were rewarded when Johansen was alert to the space he had out right from a quick throw-in. Black stood and watched while Hutton had his back turned speaking to someone, while Johansen collected and floated in a cross for Griffiths to easily head into the lead. Question marks also have to be raised over the roles of Richard Foster and Darren McGregor; the former should have done much more to prevent Griffiths from such an easy route to the cross.
Rangers did not lay a glove on Celtic in the first half. Their best route back into the game would have most likely come from a set piece. Yet their delivery from wide was essentially a summation of the mess the club is in at the moment.
With Nir Bitton increasing in prominence at the base of midfield and with little on the defensive side of the game to do, Scott Brown was given the freedom to drive Celtic forward and he alone dominated Rangers midfield trio. A man possessed, he relished the opportunity to up against Rangers, thundering into challenges setting the tempo of Celtic’s pressing to the point where he simply did all the pressing himself.
His energy began what would be a calamitous goal for Rangers to concede. Again Rangers deep position invited trouble with Law facing his own goal with the ball. Pressed by Brown he stumbled over the ball as if he had never known what its purpose was before he and Black tackled each other. The ball found its way to Commons on the edge of the area and the stocky number 10 fired past Steve Simonsen. On first viewing it was a great strike but seeing it back the English goalkeeper joined Radoslaw Cierzniak and Aberdeen’s Scott Brown in Hampden mistakes.
Despite their height and physical make-up of the squad Rangers were struggling to deal with crossed balls with Virgil Van Dijk and Johansen both missing opportunities in the six-yard box.
McDowall made a proactive change at half-time. The perpetually ineffectual Aird was removed for Jon Daly and Rangers approached the second half as they should the first half. Simply by having a second target in attack Rangers began to occupy the Celtic centre-halves, while turning the game into a battle.
Having played a passive role in the first half the game became stop-start as Rangers played higher up the pitch to encounter Celtic with niggly fouls plaguing the rest of the game.
The tactical side of the game went the same way as the game itself, uninteresting. Still not showing any sort of threat in the final third Rangers finished the game without a shot on target. Content with their 2-0 defeat.
Celtic could have turned the knife into their rivals but were content with surface wounds and a dreary 2-0 victory over the worst Rangers team ever. The celebrations suggested it was a 2-0 victory over a Rangers side which would be defending their Champions League this year.
After all the hype and all the noise it is finally over. A mediocre Celtic team defeating a Rangers side that don’t do justice to the adjective god-awful.
Well worth the wait indeed.
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