| Match Pictures | Matches: 1998 – 1999 | 1998-1999 Pictures |
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Trivia
- Croatia Zagreb now started to demand interest as well as the £3.00million on the fee for Viduka.
- Having failed to reach agreement on a new contract Simon Donnelly was put on the transfer list. Everton and Sheffield Wednesday were said to be interested in the player.
- The club were alleged to be in negotiation for the signing of Bayer Leverkusen’s Dutch striker Erik Meijer but were in competition with Fiorentina, Atletico Madrid, Tenerife, Liverpool and Middlesbrough for his signature.
- Jackie McNamara was back, having recovered fully from his knee problems, for the game. Burchill made way for him in the starting line up.
- Following the game the Scottish Premier League took it’s first ever mid-winter break and the team headed off for Spain.
Review
Denied a clear penalty at 1-1.
A clear hack on Mahe that brought him down by Kanchelskis was as clear a penalty as you can get, yet it was waved away by the referee. One of the biggest injustices done against Celtic in this Rangers-dominated era.
Teams
Rangers: Klos, Porrini, Amoruso, Hendry, Ferguson, Kanchelskis (Albertz 61), Van Bronckhorst, Amato, Wallace, McCann (Johansson 72), Vidmar.
Subs Not Used: Wilson, Miller, Brown.
Goals: Amato 45, Wallace 58.
Celtic: Gould, Boyd , Mahe, McNamara, Stubbs , Larsson, O’Donnell, Lambert, Moravcik, Riseth, Mjallby.
Subs Not Used: Brattbakk, Annoni, McBride, Burchill, Warner.
Goals: Stubbs 39, Larsson 66.
Bookings: Ferguson, Porrini, Van Bronckhorst, Amato, Hendry (Rangers) Lambert, Mahe, Stubbs (Celtic)
Referee: J McCluskey (Stewarton).
Att: 50,059
Articles
Larsson pounces to stop Rangers stretching lead
The Herald 04/01/1999
Rangers…2 Celtic…2
This was a game as pulsating as any of those that had preceded it throughout the century.
It may have lacked the finesse that came with others, but it did not lack in effort or controversy. Indeed, this was the Old Firm back doing what they do best, facing up to each other with a passion, with duels taking place all across the field as a subtext to the major confrontation between the Glasgow giants.
The first game of the season was one that lacked the emotion and the utter involvement that was demonstrated by both teams last night at Ibrox in front of a 50,059 crowd. In the second, of course, Celtic won conclusively with a 5-1 score when they showed so much more appetite for the fray than their rivals.
Last night, the Rangers support saw their players recognise the importance of the fixture, saw them fight for every ball as fiercely as Celtic did, and saw the game end in an honourable 2-2 draw. However, when the sound and the fury died away, when the dust had settled after this epic encounter, the Premier League table still made happier reading for the leaders, Rangers, than it did for the defending champions.
As the Scottish game goes into its first-ever voluntary winter break, the Ibrox team are 10 points ahead of their Old Firm rivals, while Kilmarnock remain the most cogent challengers at the top, lying, as they do, just four points off the lead.
Celtic had wanted victory when they arrived at Ibrox yesterday, but they knew, too, that they could not afford defeat, which would have had them slumping a massive 13 points behind. Beforehand, their captain, Tom Boyd, had warned that defeat would end their challenge . . . well, it remains alive after this game thanks to an equaliser from Henrik Larsson at a time when Rangers must have thought they had won the game.
Of course, in this rollercoaster of a match, there was never a time when any team could relax, when either of the two could sit back and contemplate taking the three points.
It was the kind of game where fortunes changed almost by the minute when danger lurked at one end and then the other, and when neither team could accept the praise from their fans in the stands without constantly looking over their shoulders for a further on-field threat. It all made for a fascinating evening, one that was riddled, inevitably, with controversy.
Celtic should have had a penalty after 55 minutes, for instance, when Andrei Kanchelskis, back defending made a typical forward’s tackle and brought Stephane Mahe down in the box, but referee Jim McCluskey waved away the claims from the Frenchman and awarded a goal kick instead.
Also, two of Celtic’s yellow-carded men, Paul Lambert and Alan Stubbs, were fortunate not to be ordered off when both committed further bookable offences after their initial cautions.
Lambert was booked in 33 minutes for a body check on Neil McCann then seven minutes later brought down Rod Wallace at the edge of his own penalty area. He survived, though McCluskey did award Rangers the foul.
Then, late in the game, Stubbs threw a petulant back heel at Stefan Klos after the German goalkeeper had held the ball safely after 83 minutes.
Again, he escaped, though he had been booked for dissent after 66 minutes.
Still, McCluskey handled the game as well as can be expected in the torrid circumstances that surrounded it and, while both sets of fans will complain today, that is the fate that befalls every Old Firm match official.
Rangers started the game with an attacking formation and they seemed intent on carrying the game to Celtic, almost as if they wanted revenge for that defeat in the last game.
For a lengthy spell in that first half, they looked as if they would wipe out the Celtic challenge.
Lorenzo Amoruso had a header cleared on the line by Lambert after only four minutes and Jonathan Gould had two saves before Celtic had even managed a shot at goal.
Wallace had a fine drive pushed away by Gould after 10 minutes, the goalkeeper’s touch strong enough to divert the ball away from the on-rushing McCann, who was seeking the rebound.
Gould was again alert three minutes later to thwart Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s shot from distance, while, from the resulting corner, McCann failed to make a strong enough connection.
That first effort by Celtic came in 14 minutes when Vidar Riseth shot wide. There were signs after that from Celtic that they would not give in easily, although, after 16 minutes, the impressive McCann sent an angled drive wide of the mark, while a fierce Wallace shot also went the wrong side of a post for Rangers’ liking.
Indeed, Mahe sent in a cross that struck the bar and that should have been a warning for the Ibrox team.
Yet Gould saved from Kanchelskis as Rangers still swept forward and then, in 38 minutes they were stunned as Celtic went in front. Phil O’Donnell swept in a free kick that was partially cleared by Amoruso and Stubbs was lurking at the edge of the box and he curled a shot that Klos could not stop and the Celtic fans began to celebrate.
Rangers did not seem to believe what had happened, but it was their turn to dig deep and, on this occasion, they were able to do so as the first half moved towards injury time.
McCann floated in a cross from the left and Amato stole in front of Stubbs and powered a header beyond Gould.
The teams went in level at half-time, although in injury time that might have changed when a van Bronckhorst free kick had to be beaten away by Gould as the tide turned back in the home team’s favour.
With their need to win the greater, Celtic pushed forward from the restart and Larsson missed a clear opening three minutes into the second half when given time and space following a pass inside by Lambert.
After 51 minutes, Larsson combined well with Lubo Moravcik, exchanging passes before firing a first-time shot, but Rangers’ goalkeeper, Klos, did well to hold to his right.
Celtic had two penalty appeals within a minute denied, first when Larsson claimed a handball against Sergio Porrini, then when Mahe was seemingly felled under a challenge from Kanchelskis, but nothing resulted.
After an hour, Rangers went in front for the first time in the three Old Firm meetings so far this season.
Amato was the architect of this one, somehow finding his way past Stubbs and Mahe out on the right and then forcing in a cross to the near post, where Wallace met it and hooked a shot out of Gould’s reach and into the net.
The Ibrox support greeted that as a match-winner – but there was more to come from this Celtic side.
Just six minutes later, Moravcik hit the bar with a superb shot and Larsson followed up to head the ball over the line before Klos and his bewildered defenders could recover.
Before the end, Stubbs hit the crossbar with a header and, while Rangers brought on Jorg Albertz for Kanchelskis and Jonatan Johansson for McCann, they could not change the game.
There were eight bookings – Barry Ferguson, Porrini, Amato, van Bronckhorst, and Colin Hendry for Rangers, and Lambert, Mahe, and Stubbs for Celtic.
Incidentally, contract rebel Simon Donnelly could not even find a place on the bench, where his fellow out-of-favour front-man, Mark Burchill, sat out the game.
| GOULD | Keeper was back to his best, denying Van Bronckhorst and Wallace twice each to keep Celtic in the hunt. Helpless with both goals. | 8 |
| BOYD | The most experienced Old Firm campaigner on the field defended competently if unspectacularly. Rarely put a foot wrong | 7 |
| MAHE | Hit the bar with a cross which utterly deceived Klos at 0-0 and should have earned a penalty in the second half. Booked for a foul on Porrini | 7 |
| McNAMARA | Given an unfamiliar role in the centre of midfield and, starting his first match for a month, never quite got to grips with the action | 5 |
| STUBBS | He took his goal superbly but then lost Amato, who got in front of him to cancel that strike out. Almost grabbed a late winner | 7 |
| LARSSON | Tirelessly worked Gers’ defence but often lacked support. He fluffed a golden chance from Moravcik’s cutback before scoring | 6 |
| O’DONNELL | He has mined a rich seam of form but although he couldn’t be faulted for effort, the midfielder struggled to make an impact | 5 |
| LAMBERT | Cleared an Amoruso header off the line, then harshly booked. Lucky to stay on the park after a foul from behind on Van Bronckhorst | 7 |
| MORAVCIK | Supplied Stubbs with the pass for opener and his drive came off the bar for equaliser. Otherwise showed little appetite for the fray | 6 |
| RISETH | Surprisingly asked to fill a wing-back role he is clearly uncomfortable in. He had a wretched evening but stuck manfully to his task | 4 |
| MJALLBY | He defended capably for the most part but was occasionally caught out of position. Not as memorable as his Old Firm debut in November | 6 |
| SUBS | Brattbakk, Annoni, McBride, Burchill, Warner |
- Manager Interview
“In my opinion, from where I saw it, yes, it was a penalty. I’m sure no player would fall down when he was in a position to score a goal but I have not seen it on television and, in any case, it is up to the referee to make his decision.
“We shall still try our very best to win the league because I believe we have players who have shown they can play well and there are still many games left. It will be difficult but not impossible.
“The quality of our players is so high that we are able to perform even better and I hope that after the break we will have a good run of form.
“We have the players, we have the team and if they show the commitment they did at Ibrox, it can be done.
“There are still many games to go.
“However, you can see from our first half of the season that we have lost points through too many draws in games that we were very close to winning.”
Pictures
Stats
| Rangers | Celtic | |
| Bookings | 5 | 3 |
| Fouls | 17 | 16 |
| Shots on Target | 6 | 6 |
| Corners | 7 | 6 |
| Offside | 2 | 4 |