Cheers for reading - I’m off to have a brief lie down. Here’s Ewan Murray’s match report:
Updated
It was bloody tight, as you can absolutely imagine, but on the balance of play Rangers probably deserved that. Andy Halliday was superb for Mark Warburton’s side over the 120 minutes, and stuck his penalty away very nicely. Rangers will play Hibs in the final, but this game will certainly mean more. And if nothing else, it sets up the regular return of the Old Firm games up next season very nicely indeed.
Updated
Remarkable scenes, but that was an absolutely hideous penalty by Tom Rogic at the end. He should’ve tried a Panenka....
RANGERS WIN 5-4 ON PENALTIES!
Rangers 5-4 Celtic: MISS! Rogic steps up...and balloons it high and wide!
Rangers 5-4 Celtic: Law sends Gordon the wrong way. Remarkable stuff, this.
Rangers 4-4 Celtic: Lustig doesn’t look confident...but he puts it superbly into the corner.
Rangers 4-3 Celtic: Zelalem cooly sidefoots into the corner.
Rangers 3-3 Celtic: Griffiths has to score...and does, high to the keeper’s right.
Rangers 3-2 Celtic: Wallace scores and the pressure is all on Celtic now!
Rangers 2-2 Celtic: MISS! Another miss! Brown sidefoots to Foderingham’s left but it’s a poor penalty and the Rangers keeper saves!
Rangers 2-2 Celtic: MISS! Clark tries the same but Gordon gets a strong enough hand to it to tip over the bar!
Rangers 2-2 Celtic: Bitton sidefoots it straight down the middle.
Rangers 2-1 Celtic: Mckay just scores with Gordon getting a big hand on it.
Rangers 1-1 Celtic: Miss! McGregor hits the bar!
Rangers 1-1 Celtic: Miss! Tavernier puts it over the bar!
Rangers 1-1 Celtic: Mulgrew puts it into the corner.
Rangers 1-0 Celtic: Halliday is first up and sends Gordon the wrong way.
Rangers have won the toss and will take their penalties first.
Tell a lie - the last time the Old Firm were involved in a shoot-out was in the Dryborough Cup in 1974. Celtic won 4-2 on that occasion, and by coincidence the score in normal play then was 2-2.
Full-time in ET - Rangers 2-2 Celtic - penalty shoot-out ahoy
Strewth.
Updated
Extra-time - 30 mins: Griffiths took that shot by the way. Sorry - forgot that in all the excitement.
Extra-time - 29 mins: Celtic free-kick around 30 yards out....and Foderingham brilliantly tips it onto the bar! The ball then hits the keeper’s back and goes just wide! So a slice of brilliance and a bit of luck for the keeper!
Extra-time - 27 mins: Far as I can work out there hasn’t been a competitive penalty shoot out between these two teams. Blimey and so forth.
Extra-time - 25 mins: Five minutes to go. Who’s going to make a horrible mistake and ensure they can never show their face in Glasgow again?
Extra-time - 23 mins: Griffiths plays a booming crossfield pass to Griffiths, who brings it down brilliantly but makes a mess of the cross. The ball finds its way to McGregor, who shoots from range but Foderingham dives to his right to make a good save.
Extra-time - 22 mins: The game has that ‘there’s loads of space because everyone is so tired, but everyone is too tired to actually do anything with the space’ feel to it at the moment. Lovely stuff.
Extra-time - 21 mins: Holt makes a mess of a shot and it loops up into the air, Gordon deciding to punch for reasons unclear. The ball is hoofed down field and Foderingham charges out of his goal, just getting there before Griffiths out on the Rangers right.
Extra-time - 20 mins: Rogic goes close again! McGregor threads the needle with a pass through the defence, the sub is clear but he takes a slightly heavy touch, allowing Foderingham to get close and just tip the shot wide.
Extra-time - 18 mins: And now Celtic look lively - the ball falls to Roberts in the area who has a great chance to shoot with his right foot...but tries to switch onto his left and skews it backwards. And in the process, he cramped up. So a bad choice all round, really.
Extra-time - 16 mins: Tierney breaks down the left, avoids a challenge from Tavernier and cuts back to Rogic, who finds himself in some space in the area and sweeps home a left-footed shot! Great response from Celtic.
GOAL! Rangers 2-2 Celtic (Rogic ET 16)
They’re level straight away!
Updated
Extra-time - 16 mins: Here we go again...
Even if Celtic go on to win this they've got a lot to worry about. That Rangers side has been built for pennies and has dominated the game.
— Ally Moncrieff (@AllorNothingMag) April 17, 2016
Half-time in extra-time: Rangers 2-1 Celtic
Peeeeeeeep.
Extra-time - 15 mins: A minute of added time in the first half of ET. Rangers look in control at the moment.
Extra-time - 13 mins: More problems for Celtic - Bitton has twanged his hamstring, but as they’ve made all three subs he’ll either have to limp on, or they will play with ten men. Sviatchenko gets up for a header from a corner, but Foderingham saves well down to his right.
Extra-time - 12 mins: “You’re getting sacked in the morning,” inform the Rangers fans. Delia will indeed probably be cooked if they don’t win this one.
Extra-time - 11 mins: Rogic breaks towards goal but takes a heavy touch and Tavernier is there to clear. Zelalem picks up the ball outside the Celtic box but is blocked off by Mulgrew.
Extra-time - 10 mins: All gone quiet in the Celtic end. McKay chases back and prevents a nascent attack down the right.
Extra-time - 9 mins: Law is penalised for a handball around 25 yards from the Rangers goal, to the right side. Griffiths lines this one up, but curls it well wide.
Extra-time - 7 mins: Mulgrew has a free-kick and a chance to get Celtic back into the game straight away, but he hoys it well over the bar. A replay of that disputed throw shows that it did come off a Rangers man, so no wonder Celtic were irked.
Extra-time - 6 mins: From that disputed throw, the ball breaks to McKay in the middle, he looks left and right, but in the end decides to aim for the top corner which he picks out with an absolute thriiiiiiiiiiiker of an effort that gives Gordon not the faintest whiff. A strike and a half.
GOAL! Rangers 2-1 Celtic (McKay 96)
And what a goal it is!
Updated
Extra-time - 5 mins: There’s a disagreement over a throw between ref and linesman. The ref wins.
Extra-time - 3 mins: Wallace crosses towards Clark who is a hair offside. Celtic counter but McGregor tries to run through Wallace rather than around/past him, and a free-kick is given.
Extra-time - 1 min: We’re away. Either one team will run away with this or it’ll be 30 minutes of tedium. Stay tuned!
Right, we’re back then. Hairdresser Nicky Clark is on in place of Miller for Rangers, who are about to kick-off in extra-time.
There you go. Neither team looked especially like they were going to get a winner in those latter stages, although Celtic looked a little more threatening. Another half an hour for the teams, some of whom looked a little out on their feet after 90 minutes of rather intense play.
Full-time: Rangers 1-1 Celtic
And it’s extra-time.
90 mins +1: McGregor goes through Holt in the middle but the referee deems it a fair tackle. The ball breaks to Roberts on the Celtic left, he plays down the line to Tierney but Law gets there ahead of him.
90 mins: Celtic look like the team more likely to claim a late winner, but they’ll have to get a wriggle on - two minutes of added time are signalled.
89 mins: Roberts clips the cross over from the free-kick, Bitton gets above everyone to win the header but loops it just wide of the far post.
88 mins: Roberts breaks down the left at some pace and approaches the edge of the box, but he’s shoved to the ground by Tavernier, who is booked.
87 mins: Sub for Rangers - Kiernan off, and Zelalem on, which will presumably mean a positional change. Ball looks like he’s dropping into central defence and Zelalem will go into midfield.
86 mins: Rogic tries to slide through for Roberts, who would’ve been clean through but for a brilliant block by Tavernier. Rangers counter down the left, Wallace tries to break into the area but runs straight into Bitton. No free-kick given, although Wallace holds his mouth in pain.
84 mins: Change for Celtic - Johansen limps off, and Tomas Rogic comes on to replace him.
83 mins: That corner is crossed to the near post, Mulgrew meets it but heads wide.
82 mins: Rangers attack down the right, Tavernier’s ball put behind for a corner which is taken quickly. But it’s taken poorly, and Celtic counter at pace with Roberts down the left - he plays in Griffiths down the channel, who takes it to the byline and cuts back to McGregord, but his shot is deflected wide for a corner.
Updated
81 mins: Slight tactical tweak by Celtic, as McGregor goes to the right wing and Roberts switches to the left.
79 mins: Celtic’s first attack in a while - Law for reasons best known to himself starts dribbling towards his own goal, and Tierney harries him into conceding possession, but his cross from the left is blocked rather easily.
77 mins: Beautiful ball down the left with the outside of his right foot by McKay, but Sviatchenko barrels across to get there before Wallace.
75 mins: Cripes - McKay tries to break forward at some pace down the left, and his attempted counter is brought to an abrupt halt by a late chop by Johansen. A booking for the Celtic midfield.
74 mins: Sviatchenko brings the ball forwards and tries an enormously ambitious effort from long, long range, but it dribbles harmlessly through to Foderingham, who nevertheless collects it like he’s cautiously trying to pick up a cactus.
73 mins: A slightly more circumspect spell as both teams just try to feel each other out a little. If you will.
71 mins: Sub for Celtic - Mackay-Steven is off, and Callum McGregor is on.
70 mins: Roberts tries to cut in again from the right, the trouble being that he’s so one-footed the defenders know exactly where he’s going. He overruns the ball and is tackled by Holt, but Rangers’ counter goes nowhere, it falls back to Griffiths who shoots from way, way out and it flies way, way over.
69 mins: Griffiths has some space to run into, breaking towards goal with a few options to his right, but instead he tries to beat Tavernier on the left, where there was no support, and unsurprisingly gets nowhere.
67 mins: Bitton starts an attack from the middle - quite slowly, but he starts it - then finishes it after another Roberts cut in from the right, but the effort from the midfielder is way, way, way over the top.
66 mins: Switch for Rangers - Shiels goes off, and Nicky Law replaces him.
65 mins: Roberts finally gets on the ball for a short time, but is absolutely wiped out by Halliday with a horrible challenge, which remarkably isn’t punished with a booking. Blimey.
63 mins: ...but Tavernier tries a curler that thuds straight into the wall. A waste of a good chance, that.
62 mins: Free-kick in a dangerous spot for Rangers, as Bitton chops down Hallliday around 25 yards out to the right...
61 mins: Brown sums himself up rather nicely - he barges into the back of Shiels, conceding a free-kick, then Tierney accidentally whacks the ball into his captain’s face. Brown barely reacts.
59 mins: Bookings for both teams now, and both men will miss the final should they go through - Ball gets a yellow card for an entirely pointless tug back on Griffiths, well inside the Celtic half.
58 mins: Johansen finds himself in some space in the right channel, moves infield and shifts it across to Griffiths on the left side of the box with a little room - he shoots but slices it well wide.
57 mins: Belter, this. Nobody has any time to settle on the ball which hasn’t exactly made for free-flowing, intricate football, but sod that for a game of soldiers - this is two hated rivals kicking each other. Magic.
55 mins: Wallace breaks down the left and is met by a challenge that you’d charitably describe as ‘meaty’ from Sviatchenko. He looked as if he was off the ground, possibly with two feet for that one - not the sort of challenge you necessarily make when you’ve already been booked.
53 mins: Ball dithers on the, erm, ball and Mackay-Steven nearly robs him around 25 yards from goal, but the Rangers midfielder just about gets away with it.
52 mins: Celtic all over Rangers like both a rash and a cheap suit here. Another corner is won, Roberts crosses and Sviatchenko is there again, this time directing his header towards the far corner but this time Foderingham catches the thing.
50 mins: Celtic have had so much more purpose since the break, and they’re rewarded with an equaliser. Another corner is taken from the left, swung in at the near post and the big defender and sub Sviatchenko is there to head home, into the top corner and over Holt at the near post.
GOAL! Rangers 1-1 Celtic (Sviatchenko 50)
They’re level!
Updated
49 mins: The ball is half-cleared, then breaks towards Johansen. Kiernan charges over and into the challenge, which he absolutely had to get right otherwise he would have conceded a clear penalty.
48 mins: Griffiths tries one of those Ronaldo/Bale efforts with his shot, but even with the dip and swerve it’s more or less straight at Foderingham, who beats it away. From the corner, the ball falls to Johansen outside the area, but his shot is deflected wide for another corner.
47 mins: Halliday concedes a free-kick after a strong challenge, about 30 yards out. Griffiths is lining it up...
46 mins: We’re away. Johansen clips a ball over the top, but it’s far too strong a ball and goes out for a goal kick. Possibly more problems for Celtic as Griffiths goes down in the middle seemingly under no challenge - looks like he went over on his ankle, but will try to run it off.
And we’re back out for the second-half. You’d think that Celtic won’t be as anaemic as they were before the break, but you never know.
Well, Rangers deserve their lead having been much the better side, but they could well have been level had Roberts managed that most simple of tasks and put the thing into an empty net. Perhaps a little more worrying for Celtic is not necessarily that Roberts missed - it was a sitter, but these things happen - but that he completely disappeared after the miss. A robust half-time teamtalk required from Ronny Delia - up to you whether you think he’s particularly capable of that, mind.
Half-time: Rangers 1-0 Celtic
Peeeeeeep.
45 mins: One minute of added time at the end of the half, as Celtic try desperately to salvage something before the break.
44 mins: Tavernier tries a ball down the right to McKay, but the winger is offside. Rangers have been terrific so far, pressing and not letting a Celtic side who might not be terribly used to this level of intensity settle at all.
42 mins: Rangers are camped in the Celtic half. Brown has blood coming from his nose, after a tackle on Holt causes the Rangers man’s boot to cartwheel up towards his face and - unintentionally - catch the Celtic captain in the mush. He goes off to get mopped up, and after about two seconds of that he snatches the bandage off the physio and finishes the job himself.
40 mins: More pressure from Rangers, Tavernier breaking down the right side of the box and he wins a corner as Tierney blocks his cross.
39 mins: Rangers probe down the right, but McKay’s ball over is blocked. Brown nearly loses the ball in midfield but an absolute wall of a challenge on Holt wins it back.
37 mins: Things have calmed down a little in the last couple of minutes. Sviatchenko tries an ambitious pass down the right, but he skews it badly and it skips out. Celtic haven’t managed to create much so far, to say the least.
35 mins: Eeesh. Roberts looks like he’s just dropped his mum’s birthday cake. He’s shaking his head, wondering how he missed that. No idea mate.
33 mins: What a miss! Celtic counter-attack at some pace, a nice pass by Johansen finds Mackay-Steven who in turn finds Griffiths, and the forward hits a low shot that scoots across the turf and hits the post. It bounces out into acres of space, Roberts is the only player anywhere near it and has an open goal in which to put the ball...but he skews it wide! Not quite Peter van Vossen, but not too far away...
31 mins: And there’s the first booking - Sviatchenko’s first real contribution to the game is to chop Shiels down when a promising attacking was on the cards, and he gets a yellow. Should Celtic win, he’ll be banned for the final.
29 mins: Celtic try to make some space for a shot on the edge of the box, but Rangers’ ranks are massed and every attempt - by Roberts, Johansen - is smothered. Warburton’s men most certainly deserve their lead so far.
28 mins: Speaking of lively, Brown is getting stuck in, putting in a rapid one-two of robust challenges for which he only receives a finger-wag. Thomson is probably wise to be circumspect with his cards for now.
27 mins: Another chance for Rangers. Holt ghosts around Roberts with a one-two, reaches the left corner of the box and shoots right-footed, but that was always going wide. It’s now belting down with rain, which should make things even livelier out there.
25 mins: Here is that change - Boyata off, Sviatchenko on for Celtic.
24 mins: Looks like Erik Sviatchenko is coming on for Boyata. Couple of spicy challenges from Rangers - firstly Halliday then Shiels, but free-kicks and nothing more says referee Thomson.
23 mins: Boyata seems to be limping. Perhaps an injury is why he’s been absolutely trousers so far. Wallace collects the ball on the edge of the box and tries a left-footed snap shot, but it goes wide of the far post.
22 mins: “Credit to Mark Warburton for turning Rangers into a team worthy of playing in the top division again,” writes Simon McMahon, “but the whole ‘bow down, Rangers are back’ line perpetrated by the Scottish media sticks in the throat of most Scottish football fans outside the Glasgow bubble, who had to put up with predictions of ‘Armageddon’ if the club, whose demise was entirely self-inflicted, was not immediately parachuted back into the top division. Anyhow, cracking game so far, with more action in the first 20 minutes than in 120 yesterday.”
21 mins: Splendid moment as a cross from the left by Tierney is headed clear by Kiernan, the impact between noggin and ball exactly coinciding with someone letting off a firework/something that made a loud bang noise in the crowd. Lovely stuff.
19 mins: Boyata trips Wallace right on the corner of the box, falling inside the area and claims the foul - at least a free-kick, if not a penalty, but nothing is given. Boyata looks off the pace for some reason at the moment, and it won’t be a surprise if he either doesn’t finish this game on the pitch, does something catastrophic or indeed both.
17 mins: Celtic try to get back into things straight away, as Roberts again cuts in from the right and runs across the face of goal. His shot is blocked, it falls to Tierney coming forwards from left-back, but his shot is skewed wide of the post.
16 mins: The free-kick from that Boyata foul is half-cleared, it falls out to Halliday out on the Rangers right, who tries a low cross. It’s deflected and falls into the path of Miller around ten yards out and he sweeps it, right-footed, into the far corner and past Gordon.
GOAL! Rangers 1-0 Celtic (Miller 16)
Rangers take the lead!
Updated
15 mins: Miller finds Holt out on the left and he makes tracks down the line and is then battered to the ground by Boyata. Free-kick, and again Boyata is lucky to get away with just a telling off from the ref. In another world he might already be off.
14 mins: Nifty work by Roberts, cutting in from the right and shimmying across goal, eventually finding Griffiths with a fine pass into the left channel, but the forward drags his shot wide of the far post.
12 mins: Careless stuff from Boyata - he tries some ill-advised fancy footwork just inside his own half, Miller closes him down but just before the Rangers man can get away and take a run on goal Boyata shoves him over. Free-kick, and Boyata was probably a bit lucky not to get a booking.
10 mins: So close for Celtic! Johannsen tries a threaded through-ball looking for Griffiths, it’s cut out but breaks to Brown on the edge of the box who has a moment to line-up the shot, which he takes and drags just wide of the far post. Eeesh, that was close.
8 mins: Wallace is played in down the left, just behind the Celtic defence but his attempted cross is put behind for a corner. Rangers try to play it short, but it’s too intricate and Celtic smuggle the ball clear.
6 mins: Big chance for Rangers - the ball breaks for Miller in the Celtic area, he finds himself in a bit of space and shoots left-footed, but Gordon stays big and paws the thing away. Clearest chance of the game so far.
4 mins: First shot of the game, but it’s not especially convincing - Johannsen drags one wide from the edge of the box, with little power on it.
3 mins: Nothing comes of that corner, then Celtic counter-attack. Griffiths picks up the ball on the right and embarks on what you might describe as a lung-burster of a run, but takes it right across the edge of the box and by the time he took a shot the momentum had disappeared.
2 mins: Mackay-Steven could well have been booked for a foul in the middle but instead gets away with a talking to. Roberts then dithers rather over a clearance in his own right-back spot and it’s charged down by Miller, who then wins a corner. As you’d expect, it’s frantic out there.
1 min: The first free-kick is timed at 25 seconds, as Briton fouls Halliday just outside the centre-circle in the Rangers half. Brown tried a foul shortly before but missed...
Firecrackers/works are going off, Celtic have huddled, it’s bloody loud out there....
Quick recap of the team news - Martyn Waghorn and Harry Forrester are missing for Rangers, but Celtic are more or less at full strength, aside from defender Jozo Simunovic. Erik Sviatchenko is fit enough only for the bench.
The teams are emerging, blue to the left and green to the right, flags, scarves and assorted other pageantry all over the shop. Scott Brown is doing that thing where he looks through people with a dead-eyed stare of someone barely human. Oooof.
A couple of players to keep an eye on this afternoon. To give you an idea of the style of attacking and dare we say it risk-taking football Mark Warburton plays with Rangers, it’s well to keep an eye on right-back James Tavernier, who started his career with Newcastle and has scored 14 goals this season. That’s right-back James Tavernier, and one more this season will break the Rangers record for goals from a full-back. Some have given him the (possibly, just possibly ironic) nickname the Blue Cafu, but while there might be a slight difference in quality the principle is the same: he’s an attacking full-back who can be a bit iffy going backwards.
Perhaps a man to exploit that iffyness is Patrick Roberts, the young tyro on loan at Celtic from Manchester City, who themselves splashed out £5million up front with potentially another £6million to come when they signed him from Fulham last year. He’s on an 18-month loan in Glasgow (from January), and not even the arrival of a new manager at City is going to persuade him to go back to Manchester early. “I have to do what is best for me,” he told the Daily Record recently. “I felt 18 months is good as you get the opportunity to qualify for the Champions League and the chances to win leagues and cups. That’s what you want to be doing, playing at the highest level in the world – especially as a kid. It’s much better than sitting around. I’m here for 18 months and what Guardiola does will be for himself and City. My decision to come here was a good one as this is a club with massive expectations. It’s been a great experience and I want it to continue.”
Updated
How about a Joy of Six: Old Firm games? Scott Murray takes you through big ‘uns in 1909, 1966, 1973, 1979, 1986 and 1987.
Scott also mentioned some Old Firm hosings in his Joy of Six: big derby wins...
...and new year fixtures.
As noted earlier, Hibs await in the final having beaten Dundee United on penalties yesterday. You may well have seen the penalty by Jason Cummings in normal time, a failed attempt at a Panenka that you can either see as a perfect example of sporting hubris or simply a missed penalty, a technique used by players across the world that has proved successful on some occasions and unsuccessful on others. Like, well, y’know, any method of penalty taking.
The only shame about the whole thing really was that he didn’t quite have the stones to repeat the trick in the shoot-out, although United keeper Eiji Kawashima clearly thought he was going to...
Team news
Rangers
Foderingham; Tavernier, Kiernan, Wilson, Wallace; Ball, Holt, Halliday; Shiels, McKay, Miller. Subs: Bell, Law, Clark, Zelalem, Burt
Celtic
Gordon; Lustig, Boyata, Mulgrew, Tierney; Brown, Bitton; Roberts, Johansen, Mackay-Steven; Griffiths. Subs: Bailly, Armstrong, Kazim-Richards, Commons, McGregor, Rogic, Sviatchenko
Referee: Craig Thomson (Paisley)
Preamble
We can probably all agree that today, in what has customarily become known as the friendly derby, that whoever emerges victorious and with a place in the Scottish Cup final to play Hibs in a few weeks, that football will be the winner. At full time, we can all just shake hands, go for a pint and talk about how we’re not so different really. Pals together!
Of course this is an attempt at levity and humour to disguise the seriousness of the occasion and that these two actually aren’t too fond of each other. You probably already know this. Although, having said all that Mark Warburton hasn’t exactly been banging the parochial drum ahead of this one, telling Ewan Murray:
It’s one game,” Warburton says. “You have these one-off results. Andy Halliday was in the Bradford team that beat Chelsea. It doesn’t mean Bradford are better than Chelsea. It doesn’t mean the gap between Bradford and Chelsea is any less.
“The fact of the matter is, we know there’s a gap. That’s a very respectful comment because we know we have to work hard as a team, as a club to close the gap. I keep saying it, but we do.
“For five years they have been the Premiership champions. We have to recognise that, recruit well, keep developing out environment and work hard. We’re not going to close the gap completely by August but we have to close it significantly. That’s our aim.”
Of course, a spicy occasion waits, and although Celtic are, as Warburton says, the better team in theory, a shock wouldn’t be that much of a, erm, shock today, on the basis that Rangers won the Championship by about a million points and although Celtic have the Premiership similarly in the bag, they haven’t exactly been convincing this season under Ronny Delia.
This, of course, is the second Old Firm derby to occur between the two sides since Rangers vanished and then Rangers materialised in their place four years - four years! - ago. The last time was 14 months ago in the semi of the League Cup, when Celtic beat a significantly weaker Rangers with relative ease, in a game that really did look like a top division team facing one in a lower division, but you get the impression Warburton’s men will put up rather more of a fight this time.
So. Tune in. And send me your thoughts. But be nice, yeah?
Kick-off: 12:00 BST
