It was honours even in the final Old Firm meeting of the season as a fiercely contested encounter at Ibrox ended with both sides settling for a point.
The destination of the Premiership title may have long been decided, but both sets of players ensured that the cliché about there being no dead rubbers in this fixture was shown to have some truth to it.
Cyriel Dessers put the hosts ahead on the stroke of half time, but the champions fought back in the second period and secured a draw through an Adam Idah strike.
Daizen Maeda almost won it at the death as he bore in on goal, but Liam Kelly managed to save, and a draw was just about the right outcome.
Here are the talking points from Ibrox…
Rangers put up last stand, but it is failures elsewhere that have cost them
It is a bizarre quirk to this season in which Celtic have been so dominant and Rangers such a shambles in large parts of it that the Ibrox side have seemed to have had the measure of their city rivals when they have met one another recently, since their loss on penalties in the League Cup Final in fact.
They were attempting here to register their third consecutive league victory over Celtic for the first time since season 1996/97, the campaign in which they won a ninth league title in a row. Incredible really, when they also came into this game 17 points adrift at the top of the table.
Entire forests have been felled in the analysis of just why this Rangers team can raise their game on the big occasion – whether that is on the European stage or when facing Celtic – but seem utterly perplexed by the challenge that deep-lying teams like Queen’s Park have posed them. And it was no surprise to see here that they were more effective against their more expansive opponents.
Ultimately though - if you can say such a thing when it comes to this fixture - valiant displays like this against Celtic and even the wins that Rangers have picked up against their oldest foes count for little when the prizes will once again be adorned in green and white ribbons.
Even though Brendan Rodgers and his men will be mightily pleased just to have halted that little sequence, which may have taken just a little sheen off their trophy success.
Tale of two maligned strikers
There can rarely have been two forwards who have started on either side of this derby who have drawn so much criticism from their own supporters, and during a first half where both were largely ineffective, it was easy to see why.
Then, on the stroke of half time, opportunity knocked for them both.
A lovely turn and through ball from Reo Hatate had split the Rangers defence and sent Idah in on goal, but the big striker took a heavy touch, allowing Kelly to narrow the angle, and the keeper did well to spread himself and block Idah’s effort.
Rangers immediately sprung forward on the counter, Mohamed Diomande feeding Dessers inside the area, who with perhaps his first meaningful contribution to the game did brilliantly to hold off Liam Scales and reverse the ball beyond Viljami Sinisalo and into the net.
Idah had also squandered an earlier opportunity to put James Forrest in on goal, and he must have thought the tin lid had been put on this season for him when he did find the net in the second half only for the goal to be disallowed for an earlier offside.
At last, something went for him though, as VAR intervened and he could run off to celebrate once more.
Overall, both strikers have a lot to do to convince their fans that either of them are good enough to lead the line for their teams.
Nico Raskin shines again, but Arne Engels puts up better show too
Celtic’s £11m man was at pains to point out that there is no rivalry between himself and his compatriot across the city after the last Old Firm derby, perhaps because Raskin had outshone him at Celtic Park in the 3-2 Rangers win, but in fairness to Engels, he had much more about him here.
The 21-year-old has been questioned this season, and particularly his ability to take a game by the scruff of the neck. He was much more involved here, particularly in the first half, where anything good that Celtic did invariably went through him.
He didn’t quite manage to dictate things though, and the main reason for that was Raskin, who snarled around the midfield and sparked another intriguing subplot with his willingness to go up against Callum McGregor, something that Rangers midfielders have been all too reluctant to do over the years.
It was a fascinating battle all-in-all in the middle of the park, and let’s hope the two young Belgians hang around so we can enjoy it for a good while longer.
Rangers expose Celtic set piece weakness again, but fail to make the most of it
After the last Old Firm fixture, when Raskin had scored from a free header, Celtic manager Rodgers made a point of publicly referencing the need for his men to not only pay close attention to the clever runs of the diminutive Belgian, but to maintain their focus when defending set plays.
It seems the message didn’t get through.
Leon Balogun should have scored in the early knockings as he met a Vaclav Cerny corner in acres of space, sending the ball crashing off the top of the bar on its way over. And Raskin then went close with another free header from the centre of the Celtic box that Sinisalo managed to save low to his right.
Remarkably, they gave him another go at it midway through the first half as he wriggled clear of his marker again and this time planted a header beyond the Celtic keeper and into the net to send Ibrox wild. This time, VAR rode to the champions’ rescue, spotting that Raskin had strayed offside before making contact.
Still, alarm bells were ringing for the visitors whenever the ball was coming into their area, and they might have paid a higher price.
Fans back in and the derby feels the real deal again
Despite the problems away from the ground in terms of policing at the last fixture, the presence of a large Rangers contingent at Celtic Park definitely gave the fixture more of a feel of old times, and it was the same again here as Celtic had a decent allocation of 2000 or so tucked into the corner of the Broomloan Stand.
Ok, much of what was being sung was distasteful at best, but away from that, the back and forth and the flow of the crowd reaction is what makes this derby special.
It may well have been a dead rubber, in theory, but it certainly didn’t feel like it.
