That’s me done. Thanks for reading, and for your emails. Congratulations to Celtic. Until next time!
Ewan Murray's match report
Celtic fans will have been pleased to see Kyogo dancing around in front of the Green Brigade at the end there. After initial concerns, it doesn’t appear that the Japanese player is injured.
Two Celtic players come out to speak to the media.
Nicolas-Gerrit Kühn:
Three-nil speaks for itself. It was a great performance. I’m not sure the disallowed goal was offside. But after that moment we were in control.
Callum McGregor:
The performance was really strong. If you win, it’s great. If you don’t, it’s a long two weeks [over the international break].
Remember, McGregor retired from international football over the summer, so he will have a proper break now.
Two more games to come this afternoon, north of the border: Hearts v Dundee United and Kilmarnock v Hibernian.
“How many of that Rangers team would get in the Celtic team?” asks Sky pundit and former Rangers striker Kris Boyd. “None. They don’t have any leaders. That was embarrassing”.
This is what the Scottish Premiership league table looks like.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Celtic | 4 | 12 | 12 |
| 2 | Aberdeen | 4 | 6 | 12 |
| 3 | Rangers | 4 | 4 | 7 |
| 4 | Motherwell | 4 | 2 | 7 |
| 5 | Dundee | 4 | 2 | 6 |
Full-time: Celtic 3-0 Rangers
Bragging rights go to the Bhoys. Oasis’ Roll With It rings out around Parkhead.
90+3 min: Schmeichel makes a brilliant save to deny McCausland! The ball broke kindly to the Rangers winger in the box after a crashing Igamane shot is blocked, but the Danish keeper expertly spreads himself to close the angle. Celtic are still yet to concede in the league this season.
90 min: Four minutes added on here.
88 min: Cheap booking for Taylor, who has otherwise been excellent at left-back for Celtic.
86 min: Rangers now haven’t beaten Celtic in 13 meetings. The last time they did was April 2022 in the Scottish Cup.
84 min: Here a decent stat: only three Celtic players have over 100 goals and 100 assists for the club: Jimmy Johnstone, Henrik Larsson and James Forrest.
82 min: Got to give credit to Carter-Vickers and Scales today. Dessers has got no change out of the Celtic duo, who have also been excellent playing out from the back.
79 min: Both sides have made changes. Luke McCowan is on for his debut after signing from Dundee, replacing Hatate. Adam Idah is also on, replacing Kyogo, who looks as though he might be limping. Is that a concern for Brendan Rodgers?
Rangers make a triple change. Raskin, Igamane and Balogun on for Sterling, Cerny and Propper.
77 min: Celtic fans are doing the Poznan. Parkhead, and the TV cameras, are literally bouncing.
GOAL! Celtic 3-0 Rangers (McGregor 75)
McCausland, who has comfortably been the worst player on the pitch since replacing the equally woeful Matondo, loses the ball and McGregor picks up the ball in space. The captain checks inside and lets fly from 25 yards, and the ball flies past Butland into the corner. Replays show McGregor’s shot took a massive deflection off Sterling. That’s surely the game done now.
Updated
72 min: James Forrest comes on for his 500th Celtic appearance. The veteran, who has won 24 major trophies, replaces Kuhn, who was recently booked for a late challenge on Jefte.
70 min: Twenty minutes to go, it feels like Rangers are going to have to do something drastic tactically to get back into this. Cerny is having no luck down Rangers’ right. Celtic are already looking dangerous on the counter-attack so it will be interesting to see if Rangers gung-ho.
68 min: Lawrence becomes the fifth Rangers man to go into the book for a blatant bodycheck on Engels. Celtic supporters are frustrated there is no advantage played, but in fairness to the referee, he thought there was a head injury.
66 min: Dessers gets a yellow card for a late challenge, although it looks as though the Rangers striker also came away with a bloodied lip. He seems fairly bemused at the booking.
64 min: Butland is forced into a good save at his near post, after a Celtic cross is deflected. So nearly a Propper own goal there.
63 min: Another Rangers miss, again from McCausland, who is having a bit of a mare out there. The cross came in from Jefte and fell to McCausland just six yards out, but the Scot slices his finish. Should have done better. What’s worse, McCausland took the ball off the boot of Cerny, who was in a much better position!
62 min: Celtic Park rises as Arne Engels comes off the bench for his Celtic debut, replacing Paulo Bernardo.
61 min: Great chance for McCausland, who latches onto a deep cross from Tavernier. The young winger rushed his shot.
59 min: Golden chance for Celtic to make it three! Lawrence loses the ball cheaply in midfield and McGregor pounces, feeding a perfect through-ball into the path of Kyogo. The Japanese is clean through … takes a touch … and dinks a shot wide of the goal! Ahhh, Kyogo tried the Henrik Larsson there, but didn’t pull it off.
58 min: Substitution for Rangers: Lawrence on for Diomande, who has been very underwhelming in that No 10 position. Lawrence was excellent last week in the win over Ross County.
56 min: Back come Celtic, who are peppering Rangers’ penalty box with free kicks and corners. Kuhn is a constant menace for the home side on that right side, he really reminds me of Patrick Roberts in a Celtic shirt.
53 min: From the resulting corner, Souttar hits the post with a header, but the Rangers defender is penalised for a foul on his marker, Scales.
52 min: Rangers win a free kick in a good area and start applying some pressure. Cerny swaps to the left, beats his man and whips in a low cross, which falls to Souttar but Carter-Vickers makes a crucial block, and Celtic scramble it away for a corner. Better from Rangers!
50 min: Celtic nearly scored from a corner in the first half, and they nearly score again from a corner here. Maeda again wins the flick on at the near post and Kyogo is unable to turn the ball in at the back post!
48 min: Massive chance for Dessers, as Rangers win the ball high up the pitch! The striker has time to take a touch in Celtic’s penalty box, set himself or even advance towards Schmeichel’s goal, but Dessers instead shoots weakly at goal, and it’s an easy save for the Danish keeper. What a waste. The game is not finished yet, by a long stretch. The next goal is obviously key.
46 min: Seems odd to write this on 1 September, but this is potentially a season-defining half for Rangers. A reminder they will be five points adrift of Celtic if things stay like this.
This is the live table.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Celtic | 4 | 11 | 12 |
| 2 | Aberdeen | 4 | 6 | 12 |
| 3 | Rangers | 4 | 5 | 7 |
| 4 | Motherwell | 4 | 2 | 7 |
| 5 | Dundee | 4 | 2 | 6 |
Peeeeeeep!
We’re underway again in the Old Firm.
“If Celtic claim all three points today, as now seems likely, Dundee United could go third if they do the same against Hearts at Tynecastle later”, emails Simon McMahon. “I’m sure all Celtic and Rangers fans would agree that’s what’s really at stake here”.
Half-time reading:
I’m off for an Irn-Bru. Speak shortly.
Half-time: Celtic 2-0 Rangers
A huge roar from the home supporters, as the referee blows for the break. Celtic have been completely dominant since that disallowed goal on 11 minutes.
45 min: Three minutes added on here. Rangers need half-time, badly.
44 min: Where is Rangers’ midfield? Bernardo picks the ball up in oceans of space outside Rangers’ area, dances through a couple of challenges, leaving two blue defenders on the deck, but fires straight at Butland! He had multiple opportunities to pull the trigger and maybe took too many touches. It really should be at least 3-0.
43 min: Rangers are really struggling defensively down their left. Another low cross comes into the box, and Souttar is forced to clear the ball under his own bar, with Kyogo lurking nearby.
Updated
42 min: Should say that just before all this madness, Rangers made a substitution, McCausland on for Matondo. It’s unclear as to whether that’s because the latter was struggling with that knock, or whether Matondo was having an absolute stinker. He missed a clear-cut header, created nothing and failed to track Johnston on a number of occasions, one of which directly lead to a Celtic goal.
GOAL! Celtic 2-0 Rangers (Kyogo 40)
An outrageous goal from Celtic’s talisman, who finds a pocket of space in front of Rangers’ defence, 30 yards from goal. Kyogo takes the shot early and catches Butland completely cold, arrowing a low shot inside the post. He almost passed it in from long range! It’s both a brilliant strike, and a terrible bit of goalkeeping. Celtic are two up!
Updated
38 min: Yellow card for Sterling, who fouled Kyogo in the build-up t those two Celtic chances.
36 min: Huuuuuuge two chances for Celtic! Johnston again is completely untracked by Matondo, the right back gets to the byline and cuts the ball back again to the back post, almost a repeat of the opening goal. Maeda is again there, but this time Tavernier gets a block in. The ball breaks to Kuhn in the penalty area, who slips a wonderful pass to Hatate, all alone at the back post, but the Japanese slices his finish from five yards out! It was an acute angle but Hatate should have made it two!
33 min: McGregor loses the ball cheaply in midfield and Dessers has a run at Carter-Vickers, who does well to tackle the Rangers striker on the edge of his own box.
Updated
31 min: Rangers finally get their foot on the ball, and enjoy a spell of possession. Celtic seem comfortable in their shape, though. Cerny looks lively on the right for the visitors, he’s impressed since his loan from Wolfsburg.
29 min: Rangers have the height advantage but Maeda wins a flick on at the near post from a Celtic corner, but nobody in green and white is able to turn it into the net at the back post. Tavernier nearly scores an own goal as he tries to clear. Rangers living dangerously. They must ride out this period.
27 min: Dreadful dawdling from Diomande (in midfield), and Souttar (in his own penalty box) gifts possession back to Celtic. After a fast start, Rangers are well off the pace.
25 min: Matondo is going to be OK to continue, it looks like.
24 min: Matondo, who has had an awful start to this game, is down with some sort of knock. It’s not clear whether the Rangers man will be able to continue. McCausland is warming up on the sidelines, that would be a like-for-like swap.
Updated
23 min: Celtic midfielders are running off their markers, particularly from quickly-taken throw-ins, which is fairly criminal from a Rangers perspective.
21 min: That didn’t take long for me to be proved right. Three bookings, in fact! Diomande and Johnston are both cautioned for an off-the-ball tangle, and then Clement’s assistant, Alex Rae (no stranger to a yellow card), also goes into the book for his protestations to the referee.
19 min: Kuhn slips Jefte with a body feint, and the Rangers left back hauls the German to the turf. Our first yellow card of the day. I’d estimate it won’t be our last.
GOAL! Celtic 1-0 Rangers (Maeda 16)
Johnston gets to the byline after a wonderful underlap down the right, Matondo fails to track his man, and the Canadian pulls the ball back towards the penalty spot. Calamitous defending from Rangers as Propper slips at the front post, Tavernier switches off completely at the back post, and Maeda slots home first time beyond Butland!
Updated
13 min: I was just about to say that Rangers were looking really strong in these opening minutes, and then they were completely undone in a matter of seconds, and just a couple of inches away from going behind.
CELTIC GOAL DISALLOWED!
11 min: Just a few seconds after Matondo’s miss, Rangers are caught all at sea in midfield. Kuhn runs in behind, has time to enter Rangers’ penalty box and rolls a simple pass across goal for Kyogo to tap the ball in at the back post! Celtic Park erupts as the home side take the lead.
But wait, the referee is talking to his VAR assistants, and the goal will be chalked off! Kuhn was judged to be offside. Replays show he was only a couple of inches off, as they draw the lines. A lucky escape for Rangers.
Updated
10 min: Wonderful chance for Motondo, who somehow heads wide from six yards out after a inch-perfect Tavernier cross. How did he miss?!
8 min: Great play out wide from Celtic, and Taylor plays a low, tantalising cross right across Rangers’ six-yard box. It evades a green and white shirt, and Jefte clears gratefully at the back post.
6 min: Golden chance for Dessers! Tavernier breaks forward unhindered and plays a brilliant through ball to the striker. Dessers checks back on his right foot, as Carter-Vickers is sent to the shops, but the Nigeria international shoots straight at Schmeichel! The linesman flags for offside, but Dessers didn’t know that. It was awfully tight.
5 min: Hatate tries his luck from range after some neat Celtic midfield play. Well wide.
4 min: Speaking of aggression, Barron is lucky to escape a booking after coming straight through the back of Kyogo. The Rangers man got the ball, but that was naughty! A proper let-them-know-you’re--there-in-the-first-five challenge.
3 min: Rangers are pressing really high, and Carter-Vickers is forced to boot it out for a throw in. This is a really good, aggressive start from the visitors.
Updated
1 min: Early chance for Rangers, who win a free-kick in Celtic territory. Cerny whips one to the back post, Propper arrives at the back stick, heads it across goal, but nobody is there.
Peeeeeeeeeeep!
The Old Firm derby is underway.
You’ll Never Walk Alone plays out. It is a spectacular rendition.
The teams are out! The atmosphere is electric at Parkhead, even with an absence of away supporters.
Updated
An email from Phil Withall.
Good evening from oppressively warm Queensland, So, here we go again, an early season Old firm derby and all to play for. If Celtic win then that’s pretty much it for the season. Not grumbling, as that is the way of football. Just as in most leagues around the world, money dictates, Rangers use theirs like a 18-year-old on a bender. The upper echelons of football have started to lose their appeal. Give me the absolute chaos of the Combined countries Premier league division south any day. Celtic to win 3-1, bring on the parade of diminished enthusiasm.
Rangers’ transfer business has certainly been a bit more scattergun. I was also surprised to see Todd Cantwell move to Blackburn on transfer deadline day. Will he be a big miss this season, Rangers fans? Or did he underwhelm last season?
Both clubs lost key personnel this summer, Celtic sold their player of the season last year, Matt O’Riley, to Brighton for £25m, a record for a player sold by a Scottish club. That’s good business for Celtic, even if it does leave a hole in their midfield. One they will hope is filled by Arne Engels (on the bench today) and Paulo Bernardo (starting). Neither is a like-for-like replacement, remember O’Riley was Celtic’s top scorer last season from midfield. Celtic will be relieved that Manchester City’s interest in Kyogo Furuhashi came to nothing.
Both managers have been talking to the cameras. We are 15 minutes away from kick-off.
Celtic’s Brendan Rodgers:
Making ourselves really difficult to play against, that’s the key. The bench is strong today. We’ve had a fantastic market, in terms of who we have brought in.
Rangers’ Philippe Clement:
We come with confidence. We are in a different stage of building a squad [to Celtic]. But we are in a process. This is the next step. I have a lot of belief we can win today. We have to do a lot of things right. You also need a lot of luck. It was really tight in the four games last season, we had two red cards in the two games here. We have a really young, exciting squad. We know they want to start with the high pressing, aggressive.
Hahahahahaha. The patter.
Nice to see the St Johnstone fans around the Motherwell TV Commentator taking the late goal well 😬. pic.twitter.com/tktMD66TiH
— camer0n_mcd 𝕏 (@camer0n_mcd) September 1, 2024
Something to get the juices flowing.
Old Firm Day 👊 pic.twitter.com/psUizML1xk
— Rangers Football Club (@RangersFC) September 1, 2024
I had the pleasure of meeting Henrik Larsson earlier this year in Sweden. He spoke about the Old Firm derby.
When we played against Rangers, we hated each other. But when it was finished, we were friends. Mostly Rangers fans were no problem. There was once when I was with Giovanni van Bronckhorst [his friend and then Rangers defender], who had just bought a new Porsche. We were in Uddingston because we were picking up some takeaway food. We used to order Chinese food a lot, peking duck after a game. There was this drunk Rangers supporter who wasn’t happy when he saw me and the new car. He was walking towards it, until Giovanni took him away. I loved the rivalry. It took some time to get used to it. I understand what it’s all about now, but not in the beginning.
Here is the rest of the interview:
The teams!
Our Glasgow Derby Team News 🟢⚪️
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) September 1, 2024
#CELRAN | #CelticFC🍀 pic.twitter.com/G1xcZrMRr8
🆕 Today’s #RangersFC team to face Celtic.
— Rangers Football Club (@RangersFC) September 1, 2024
🗒️ Full Team News: https://t.co/ZZuDJdU8IH pic.twitter.com/Tq4mACKtMc
New signings Igamane and Kasanwirjo are in the Rangers squad today for the first time.
Preamble
When my son was born a couple of years ago, I remember standing in the maternity ward at a chart on the wall as my wife and I waited to go into a room. It indicated how many babies had been born in that maternity ward that calendar year, reading exactly 160 boys, 160 girls. Of course, these numbers were equal – that’s how it works – but in my dazed, sleep-deprived state, I was still struck by the equilibrium of this small sample size, of this particular maternity ward, in this particular corner of north London.
The equilibrium of the Old Firm derby may not be decided by X or Y chromosomes, but it is remarkable that the long history of this fixture, 441 matches dating back to 1890 in the Scottish League, Scottish Cup and League Cup, there have been exactly the same number of wins for both Celtic and Rangers: 169, with the two sides also playing out 103 draws.
Is there a bigger club rivalry in the world? Possibly not (with apologies to River Plate/Boca Juniors and Galatasaray/Fenerbahce). It is something that both divides and unites a city, and neither Celtic or Rangers would have it any other way.
Celtic are clear favourites to go one ahead in the all-time stakes today, which would put early daylight between themselves and Rangers in the early league table. A win here for the Bhoys would put them five points clear of their biggest rivals with just four games played, quite the early season statement. Kasper Schmeichel, in the Celtic goal, is yet to concede in the league this season.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aberdeen | 4 | 6 | 12 |
| 2 | Celtic | 3 | 9 | 9 |
| 3 | Rangers | 3 | 7 | 7 |
| 4 | Motherwell | 4 | 2 | 7 |
| 5 | Dundee | 4 | 2 | 6 |
Rangers looked fluent in their 6-0 win over Ross County last weekend, but are still reeling from their 0-0 draw with Hearts on the opening day, and their elimination from Champions League qualifying to Dynamo Kyiv. The pressure is already on Philippe Clement to deliver today at Celtic Park.
There will be no away Rangers fans today, due to ongoing issues around supporter safety at Old Firm matches. Both clubs have been asked to make improvements at their stadia, and despite a deal being struck in March, the first two league meetings this season will not house away fans. Celtic may well be within their rights to refuse to allocate tickets, apparently through concern Ibrox will not be appropriately updated to house away fans in January, but the issue is difficult to assess properly while nobody at the champions speaks out on the matter.
We’ll be focusing on matters on the pitch. As ever, it’s a mammoth game for all sorts of reasons.
Kick-off: 12.30pm BST.
Updated
