They promised a cup final classic. They produced a car crash instead.
And even though it all ended with another trophy for Celtic’s heaving cabinet, the pair of them ought to be done this morning under the Trade Descriptions Act. Because what we got at Hampden Park yesterday was an absolute mess of a football match.
Celtic won it with two expertly poached goals from Kyogo Furuhashi. The striker’s first came split seconds after Daizen Maeda had swung and missed at a fresh-air winder six yards out from Allan McGregor’s goal. His second arrived after half-time following a gift-wrapped pass from James Tavernier who gave up possession for no apparent reason when he passed to a green and white shirt rather than a blue one. On reflection, these were more than just the match-winning moments.
They encapsulated the entire, error-strewn contest which amounted to nothing much more than a running skirmish from start to finish, until ref Nick Walsh put the match ball out of his agony as an act of mercy at the end. By then Rangers had at least managed to make it interesting – and for a while mildly exciting – with a scrappy second-half goal from Alfredo Morelos, which Joe Hart should have kept out but succeeded only in helping into the back of his own net.
The keeper’s gaffe was far from the biggest howler of the day. But it was perfectly in keeping with the tone nonetheless. Just when the world was watching and anticipating something spectacular, what we got was an endless succession of blunders, misplaced passes, badly-timed tackles, dreadful decision-making and trampoline-toe touches.
It was remarkably low-brow stuff from its first kick to its last. But it was won, eventually, by the side which just about deserved it because what little cohesive football that was on offer was coming off the boots of the likes of Callum McGregor, Reo Hatate and Aaron Mooy.
From the moment Kyogo buried the opener, they never looked like having to settle for second best. The whole experience, then, was more of the same for Ange Postecoglou who has become accustomed to the smell of silver polish.
But it left a nasty taste in the mouth of the big Aussie’s opposite number, who had talked a good game leading up to this final but who left the national stadium yesterday evening wondering how much blame should be apportioned in his direction. Indeed, Michael Beale threw in a curve ball even before kick-off by choosing to leave both of his January new boys on the bench.
While Todd Cantwell was left to play second fiddle to Malik Tillman, as widely expected, the decision
to overlook Nico Raskin did raise some eyebrows. As a matter of fact, it was the same starting XI Beale rolled out for the last derby day at the beginning of January with John Lundstram and Glen Kamara getting the nod to anchor the midfield.
Both of them struggled horribly to make any kind of impact before eventually being hauled off midway through the second half, moments after Morelos had pounced to get their team back in it. Tillman also made way at that point with a head full of regrets.
The American looked like a player who had been rushed off the treatment table in order to take part but before he was good and ready for such a stern examination. Again, that one will have to land on Beale who can at least take some comfort from knowing that the three substitutes he chose to send on at that stage in the game helped Rangers finally get onto the front foot for the first time.
Raskin, Cantwell and Ryan Jack provided his team with the energy and urgency which it had been so badly missing but that in itself only made Beale’s decision not to start with any of them all the more difficult to comprehend.
But then nothing about this derby seemed to make any sense straight from the start as two teams sprinkled with outstanding talent appeared to forget how they were supposed to function. They combined to botch just about everything they tried to do, from short corners to sclaffed crosses. Just getting the ball under control and keeping it there for any length of time seemed like too much of a challenge.
It was only towards the end of the first half when McGregor, Mooy and Hatate really began to get a grip of the midfield that Celtic emerged from their own malaise.
Kyogo had slashed at a couple of chances and headed one over the bar before his first big moment arrived two minutes before the break, following Maeda’s slapstick attempt at connecting with Greg Taylor’s cross. The little man made no such mistake from in front of McGregor’s goal.
That the unruly, militant wing of Celtic’s support celebrated by setting off rockets from the other end – and that they were still being allowed to when the second half began – was perhaps the only extraordinary thing about this final. But these were not the fireworks the rest of us had come for.
Kyogo’s second goal effectively killed it stone dead, bundling home from close range after Tavernier’s sloppiness had invited Hatate to advance behind enemy lines to pick out his countryman with a cutback. The Rangers skipper made amends in part by picking out Morelos soon after with a clipped dead ball delivery from which the Colombian bagged himself a goal at the back post, albeit with a helping hand from Hart.
That should have sparked Rangers into life and the arrival of Raskin and Cantwell from Beale’s bench did, at least, raise the tempo of their play. But, on a day full of damp squibs, it was all too little and too late to make this match the proper spectacle that it really ought to have been.
READ NEXT
