That’s all from me. It’s been a blast. Here’s your match report. Bye!
Scott Brown’s medal has fallen off its ribbon. “I’ve lost it already,” he admits. To be fair, he’s probably got enough already.
Glasgow weather latest: Jonny Hayes is visibly shivering as he takes part in Celtic’s victory lap.
More from Neil Lennon, who to his great credit is honest and generous in victory:
Fraser was awesome today, and he needed to be, because first half we were so flat. We’ve been playing brilliantly, scoring a lot of goals, but we just looked really off it first half. You have to give Rangers credit for that. But we galvanised ourselves, showed a lot of mental strength, scored a great goal and had a chance to make it two. It doesn’t stop here. We’ve got a lot of games between now and the end of the month to forge ahead in the league, but that’s a first trophy in the cabinet.
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen less deserving cup final winners. That their goal was offside is just the icing on a very bitter cake for Rangers. Anyway, here’s Neil Lennon:
I’m delighted. Disappointed with the way we played at times, because that’s not the standard we set ourselves. We had to ride our luck, there’s no question of that. I shook the Rangers players’ hands because they made the final a good spectacle. But we’ve come through it again. We’re absolutely an amazing team. That’s 10 major trophies in a row. It’s a brilliant day. To go down to 10 men, and the resilience we showed ... I thought we were better with 10 men than we were with 11.
Scott Brown lifts the trophy skywards, and as fireworks fly off the Hampden Park roof, yet another Celtic trophy celebration commences.
Updated
“That’s got to be one of the all time great goalkeeping performances/clean sheets,” writes Simon McMahon. “Fraser Forster would be as well retiring now, he’ll never beat that. Without him, Rangers would have won 5-1, at least. Fair play to Celtic though, took their chance. Rangers didn’t.” I refer the honourable gentleman to my previous answer. I think most of Forster’s saves were entirely straightforward, but there were just so many of them that eventually Rangers’ self-belief drained out of them, as if they felt by the end it was barely worth them giving Forster another opportunity to show off.
Updated
Neil Lennon strolls about in front of the Celtic fans, 10 fingers raised. This is the most remarkable victory, won with an offside goal, their only shot on target. Rangers were fantastic but for Morelos, who could barely do anything right. He had his chances, but inevitably either shot straight at Forster, or high, or wide. Forster made one good save, from a bouncing header, but everything else was pretty easy for him.
Fraser Forster, man of the match, has a quick chat:
Just went my way today. I’ll take that. Just buzzing for the lads, buzzing for everyone at the club, buzzing for the fans. It just shows how clinical we are. It’s something special. We played some terrible football, but we’ve won the game and as long as you win a final, that’s all that matters.
Final score: Rangers 0-1 Celtic
90+7 mins: It’s all over! Celtic have been pummelled from first to last, and won anyway!
90+7 mins: Kent runs down the right. He has Defoe and Morelos to aim at, but can’t find either of them. Is that it?
90+7 mins: Into stoppage time at the end of stoppage time.
90+6 mins: Celtic win a free-kick in their own area. Morelos vaguely touched someone, a pretty harsh decision. Forster goes down. It’s hard to see what’s bothering him, and eventually, after the physio has come on for a while, it transpires that nothing is.
90+5 mins: Rangers have had 16 shots to Celtic’s five, seven on target to Celtic’s one, 11 corners to Celtic’s one. They trail by a goal with 90 seconds to play ...
90+3 mins: Close! Arfield passes to Morelos, who is played onside by Ajer. He spins onto it and shoots across goal, but the ball zips inches wide of the far post!
Updated
90+2 mins: Another terrible Barisic cross. Embarisic, more like.
90+1 mins: Into stoppage time. There’ll be six minutes of it! It’s not over yet!
89 mins: A better cross from Barisic. It heads towards Morelos, who flings himself to the turf rather than win the header. Johnston is on his shoulders, but Morelos was certainly ready to go down. On commentary, Chris Sutton rages that Morelos “should be booked” for “trying to con the referee”, but actually on the replays I see a pretty clear push.
88 mins: They do indeed waste that corner. The ball is won back and ends up with Barisic on the left, who hits a hugely embarrassing cross that flies over everyone and out for a throw-in.
87 mins: Jermain Defoe touches the ball! The ball comes in from the right, and he and Jullien fling themselves at it at the near post. It hits both, and Rangers have another corner to waste.
85 mins: Arfield blasts a shot high from too far out. Rangers, despite having an extra man, have not been the same since the penalty save.
83 mins: All the physios are on. Ajer is down for Celtic, and Helander for Rangers. Katic replaces the latter, but Celtic are clean out of substitutions.
81 mins: Rangers win another corner, their 10th. It is no more effective than the previous nine.
79 mins: Celtic put the ball out of play so that Jullien can receive treatment. Rangers refuse to return the ball from the throw-in, keeping it instead and launching an attack that culminates in Morelos thrashing a wild shot high of goal from the edge of the area.
78 mins: Jullien goes down, apparently in pain. Turns out Morelos trod on his heel. Was it deliberate? It’s hard to tell from the replays, but he certainly didn’t try to get out of the way.
77 mins: There’s definitely another goal in this game, which is getting wilder by the minute. A cross from the left is just cleared before Edouard can poke it in, and a couple of seconds later McGregor is booked for a foul on Barisic.
74 mins: Brandon Barker replaces the recently-booked Joe Aribo.
71 mins: Aribo is booked. Sky’s commentary team thinks it was the least he deserves, but it looked to me like he was guilty of doing not very much to a wildly overreacting Jonny Hayes.
71 mins: Jermain Defoe replaces Kamara for Rangers. They have sorely needed his finishing smarts here.
69 mins: What a chance for Celtic to win this! Edouard wins the ball just inside Rangers’ half, spots Johnston sprinting into space to his left and plays him in. Johnston runs into the area, draws McGregor, and sidefoots wide!
Updated
67 mins: From a half-cleared corner Jack has a shot which is half-cleared back to him, and his second shot takes probably a couple of deflections on its way into Forster’s arms.
66 mins: Celtic make a tactical change, taking James Forrest off, and bringing Nir Bitton on.
Forster saves the penalty!
64 mins: Morelos hammers his penalty low and vaguely leftwards, and Forster goes the right way and saves it! It’s a rubbish penalty - if Forster guessed right, he couldn’t fail to save it!
Updated
Penalty to Rangers! Celtic down to 10 men!
63 mins: The ball ricochets into the path of Morelos inside the penalty area. Frimpong finds himself behind the Rangers forward, and pulls him back! The referee points to the spot, and brings out the red card!
Updated
63 mins: Rangers have had six shots on target so far. Celtic have just scored with their first.
61 mins: That’s a travesty in so many ways. Rangers have been massively dominant, they should have had a penalty a few minutes ago, and now they’re trailing to a goal that shouldn’t have stood. Football, eh?
GOAL! Rangers 0-1 Celtic (Jullien, 60 mins)
Edouard comes on, wins a free kick out on the left, and as it comes in three Celtic players are offside. Jullien, third of the trio, sidefoots a volley in! Somehow they lead!
Updated
59 mins: Edouard is now on, and Lewis Morgan is off.
57 mins: Celtic are about to bring on Eduoard. They surely can’t survive much more of this onslaught.
56 mins: Another save! Rangers win another free-kick on the right. It’s lfited into the area, and Morelos meets it at the far post, heads it into the turf and as it bounces towards the net Forster flings out his left glove and pushes it to safety! That’s the best save of the game so far.
55 mins: Jonny Hayes has turned into a one-man free-kick dispensor, sliding in recklessly on the left and then barging Morelos down on the right.
53 mins: Brown fouled Morelos inside the penalty area a couple of minutes back, no doubt about it. So much was going on at the time that the referee entirely missed it, and VAR is not a thing here.
52 mins: Now a low ball comes in from the left and causes panic in the Celtic backline. Aribo looks set to tap it in at the far post when Forster gets a foot to it!
Updated
51 mins: A chance for Rangers! The ball rolls to Morelos, whose shot from an unpromising angle to the left of goal rolls across the goalline and wide!
50 mins: The first shot on goal of the second half comes from Tavernier, just outside the penalty area, but it’s not his finest, and flies well off target.
48 mins: A bit of midfield-based sparring to start the second period, with neither defence much threatened thus far.
46 mins: Peeeeeep! They’re off!
The players are back out and ready to rock. This has to be decided in the next 45 minutes (or the half-hour after that, or failing that, penalties). Let’s do this!
Apparently Mohamed Elyounoussi is being taken off at the break, and 20-year-old Mikey Johnson will come on.
A massively encouraging half for Rangers, but can they sustain this intensity for the full 90 minutes? And can Alfredo Morelos locate his shooting boots at half-time? The answers to these and other questions are soon to be revealed.
Half time: Rangers 0-0 Celtic
45+3 mins: Rangers have had eight shots to Celtic’s two, five on target to Celtic’s none, and five corners to Celtic’s one. But it’s goalless at the break.
45+1 mins: Into stoppage time, of which there’ll be two minutes or so.
44 mins: Rangers are controlling the end of the half as emphatically as they controlled the start. And most of the middle. Tavernier has a decent crossing chance, but for some reason decides instead to pass straight to Christie, who clears.
How many more chances will Alfredo Morelos get?!
— Fitba on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) December 8, 2019
Forster is keeping Celtic in this...#BetfredCupFinal pic.twitter.com/0BaqdtpBYc
41 mins: The first booking of the final goes to Glen Kamara, who having been beaten by Frimpong hauls him back by the waist.
40 mins: What a chance for Rangers! Morelos is played in, but I think he suspects he’s offside (he isn’t - Hayes was behind him and goalside) and thus doesn’t really commit to the finish, which again hits Forster.
Updated
38 mins: Any suggestion that the rain had stopped was laughably wide of the mark, incidentally. We’re having a slight pre-half-timely lull.
35 mins: It looks like Ryan Jack has fully recovered. Morelos gives away a free kick for deliberately jumping into a defender, which he’s done a couple of times already.
32 mins: Celtic are starting to threaten more regularly. They launch a threatening break, which ends when Morgan is brilliantly challenged by Jack. But the Rangers player’s studs catch in the turf as he comes in to win the ball, and he’s now receiving treatment to his knee.
Updated
28 mins: Chance for Rangers! It’s a long pass down the right, and Morelos gets to it first, runs past Ajer, who commits himself foolishly, cuts into the box and, with no one particularly better placed infield, blasts a shot at Forster!
25 mins: Celtic win their first corner, and Ajer wins the header, but it goes well over the bar.
24 mins: Hayes finds some space on the left, but his cross goes straight to a blue shirt. Rangers need to convert their dominance into goals before Celtic wake up.
23 mins: Another optimistic Morelos shot, and this time Forster makes an easy save.
22 mins: Another corner, another Rangers header, another goal kick.
21 mins: Morelos blasts a shot at goal from wide on the left, and Forster makes a complete hash of the save, letting the ball roll underneath him, but Hayes is first to the loose ball and clears!
Updated
20 mins: Celtic do look like they can’t really be arsed with a cup final this afternoon. It’s as if they feel a bit put out at having to play football on a day when Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa is on the TV, and haven’t really been able to get over it.
16 mins: Tavernier’s corner is headed by Goldson straight into a defender.
15 mins: Another Rangers corner. Celtic don’t seem to have an outlet here, but they are yet to concede a genuine goalscoring chance.
14 mins: Shot ... and saved! Jack smacks the ball goalwards from 25 yards and it’s dipping beautifully into the top corner until Forster tips it over!
13 mins: It might have actually stopped raining. [inevitable obvious pun dept adds: Rangers are still pouring forward, mind.]
10 mins: Celtic do a thing. It’s not a very good thing, but it must still be categorised as an attack. Morgan is found inside the penalty area, but his first-time shot from an unpromising position is unpromising.
8 mins: Another Celtic corner, but it’s a rubbish one. It loops over the six-yard box, and though Rangers keep the ball they don’t do much with it.
5 mins: It’s been 100% pure Rangers so far. Now Barisic gets down the left, but his cross isn’t great, Arfield doesn’t really commit to the header and the ball ends up bouncing off his back and behind.
3 mins: Now they win a free-kick on the right, and again Goldson wins the header but this time it has neither power nor accuracy. Goal kick.
Updated
2 mins: And now an early corner for Rangers. Jullien beats Helander to the header, sending the ball looping into the air, and Forster pushes it behind for another corner. This time Goldson wins it, and thumps a header wide!
Updated
1 min: Peeeeeeep! Rangers get the ball rolling, and promptly smack it straight into touch!
An email! “Just to pick up on Ewan’s article yesterday, yes, no questioning that Rangers have improved and in doing so have forced us to up our game too, but to say that we Celtic fans fear them is a bit of a stretch,” writes Tom Conniffe. “Respect them as a team, sure, but no great fear. We have better quality right across the park and on our day should deal with them straightforwardly. Of course football can produce surprises, which is why we love it, but they rely largely on a single gameplan - go wide and cross to Morelos - that can be nullified if we keep our concentration. And we have a plan b and c on the bench in French Eddy, Rogic and Johnston, that they just don’t.” Confident talk there. Now Celtic just need to go and win it.
The players are in the tunnel! And out they come, as jets of fire burst skywards!
Updated
The pre-match entertainment is in full swing. Currently Ally McCoist and Chris Sutton are taking turns to wave the trophy at supporters of the teams they once represented, while fans of the other lot boo. And it’s still raining.
I’m counting two coats, some extremely thick gloves, a scarf and a bonus plastic poncho here. Your Glasgow weather report in a single image:
Neil Lennon says Edouard “came in yesterday and said he didn’t feel comfortable enough in himself to start the game”. His players, he says, are quiet and focused on winning 10 major trophies in a row: “I might give them a few words of motivation, but the majority have been here and done it before, so it’s nice and calm in there at the moment.”
Steven Gerrard says Steven Davis had “no chance” of making this game, and will miss two or three games with a calf injury. Also:
Without giving too much away we want to get quality from the sides. You know what dressing-rooms are like now, they have this music on blasting, it’s like a nightclub in there. They’re in a good place, they just need to go and grasp it now. We’ve got to defend well, first and foremost, and when the game presents itself to us to show how good we are from an attacking point of view. It’s important we play the game, rather than the occasion. We have to be the best Rangers if we want to win this trophy.
Updated
Weather latest: it is absolutely ratting down in Glasgow. The pitch is “absolutely saturated” and it’s unlikely to stop any time soon.
It’s probably wise to establish at this stage what would happen should the scores be level after 90 minutes. Here are the relevant regulations:
Basis of Competition
4.5 In all rounds, other than the First Round, the Competition shall be conducted on a ‘knockout’ basis with the winner being the Club or club with the greater number of goals at full-time. If the scores are equal at full time or no goals have been scored, an extra thirty minutes (15 minutes each way) of extra time will be played (“Extra Time”) and, if the scores are still equal or still no goals have been scored at the end of Extra Time, the winner shall be determined by taking Penalty Kicks.
4.6 If Penalty Kicks are required, the Match referee determines which goal will be used as follows:
4.6.1 if the Match referee determines that either goal could be used for the Penalty Kicks, then, in the presence of the two captains, the referee shall toss a coin to decide which goal will be used; or
4.6.2 if for reasons of safety/security, condition of the field of play, lighting or other reason, the Match referee determines that a particular goal shall be used for the Penalty Kicks, such decision shall be final and require no justification.4.7 Following the procedure set out in Regulation 4.6, the Match referee shall toss a coin and the Club/club that wins the toss shall decide whether to take the first or second Penalty Kick.
The teams!
The team sheets are in, and these are the names upon them. Steven Davis is the notable absentee from the Rangers side, while Odsonne Edouard is fit enough only for the Celtic bench:
Rangers: McGregor, Tavernier, Goldson, Helander, Barisic, Aribo, Jack, Kamara, Arfield, Morelos, Kent. Subs: Defoe, Ojo, Foderingham, Flanagan, Katic, Barker, Stewart.
Celtic: Forster, Frimpong, Ajer, Jullien, Hayes, McGregor, Brown, Forrest, Christie, Elyounoussi, Morgan. Subs: Gordon, Bitton, Rogic, Johnston, Ntcham, Edouard, Bolingoli Mbombo.
Referee: William Collum.
Hello world!
Celtic play Rangers in the final of the competition currently known as the Betfred Cup, for Rangers a first League Cup final since they beat these very opponents 2-1 in 2010-11. Celtic have won this pot in four of the last five seasons, beating Dundee United, Aberdeen, Motherwell and Aberdeen again by an aggregate score of 8-0 in those finals, but Old Firm games since Steven Gerrard’s appointment by Rangers have tended to be close, there are only two points between them in the league table and this looks very much like an anything-could-happen situation.
Here’s Ewan Murray’s preview:
It would be natural for Celtic supporters to have spent recent days in a state of apprehension. For the prospect of their domestic dominance being halted by their Old Firm rivals Rangers is galling. Were Aberdeen, Dundee United or Motherwell to end Celtic’s consecutive trophy haul, which currently stands at nine, there would be joy for the underdog and widespread shock. If Rangers break the spell, the mutual impact would be considerable. For all that Celtic should be the favourites heading into Sunday’s Scottish League Cup final, a Hampden Park showpiece – likely to be more intense, and bitter, than most knockout football – supplies no guarantees.
Much more here:
