2025-01-02: TheRangers 3-0 Celtic, SP

Match Pictures | Matches: 2024 – 2025

Trivia

KO: 15:00; Thursday; Sky Sports TV; League Match 19, traditional Ne’er derby game. No away fans made it easier to have this match KO at 3pm! Full Scottish match programme on today.
Today’s match dubbed “The Dead Rubber Derby” as Celtic have a perceived unassailable lead in the league (14pts), but hubris could be our downfall as has happened before. First Celtic defeat of the season domestically.
Celtic remain on top, 11pts aheads & +45GD, 24 GD ahead of Sevco.
Match temporarily halted as Celtic’s Arne Engels is struck by an object from the crowd (a coin). Police Scotland are investigating two separate incidents. Brendan Rodgers confirmed that Engels was “OK” but added that “an inch lower, he would have been [hit] right in the eye”.
Kyogo goal was ruled offside (correctly).
Sevco’s captain Tavernier out injured,as is Souttar and Bolguan so Sevco defence decimated! Their keeper Jack Butland also missed the match after he was admitted to hospital on Hogmanay. So their defence at their bare bones.
Poor weather all week (80km/h gales) but died down by this day, freezing today though. Hogmany celebrations were cancelled across a number of places (most notably Edinburgh).
Last meeting: Celtic won on penalties after 120mins in 3-3 draw to lift the League Cup trophy.
Both clubs still in dispute over away fan allocations etc, so no Celtic fans present.
Sevco granted permission to sell alcohol from a marquee before matches v Tottenham (Uefa cup) and Celtic (today’s game) (no aways fans for this game made this easier).
The UK’s Queen Elizabeth II expressed her relief that Northern Ireland’s “silly marching business” was quieter than expected when the then Irish ambassador to the UK visited in 2000, Irish government papers revealed!
Paddy Hill, one of The Birmingham Six wrongly convicted of the 1974 atrocity, has died aged 80. RIP
Ex-Celt Davie Moyes awarded an OBE.
Report: Ex-Celt Ben Doak could be used a makeweight in transfer deal for Liverpool to Crystal Palace.
Reports: Bernabei to Brazilian side Internacionale for £5-7m + addons to close in next week. Stephen Welsh to KV Mechelen on loan. Kyogo to Man City (as was linked last summer) NOT expected to occur despite thrm needing reinforcements after recent slump. Interest for midfielder James McAtee (Man City). Odin Holm loan to MLS side LAFC. Greg Taylor to Dinamo Zagreb. Celtic hoping to organise a new contract for Kuhn. CCV says content at Celtic despite interest from Germany.
Report: Celtic want to lure Kieran Tierney back and are working on a deal to sign him on a pre-contract deal in Jan. (Football Insider).
Schmeichel confirmed he will hold talks over his future next month.
Liverpool/Hillsborough campaigner Phil Scraton refuses OBE:”I could not accept an honour tied in name to the ‘British Empire’. In my scholarship and teaching I remain a strong critic of the historical, cultural and political contexts of imperialism and their international legacy.”

Summary

“There’s always pressure of some sort. I hear the talk about a ‘dead rubber. There is never a Rangers(sic!)-Celtic game that’s a dead rubber – not in my book. It is where you are judged at this level, working at Celtic or Rangers(sic!) – I think you are judged in these games. I saw Giovanni van Bronckhorst get to a European final and then lose his job not long after because he was losing to Celtic.”
Brendan Rodgers prematch

El Salto of KDS: Firstly, this team has a lot of credit in the bank, as does the manager. We will go on to win this League more than comfortably.
But……………..
Today was as unforgiveable as it was unexpected. We literally sh*t the bed individually and collectively, looked scared in what was earlier described as the “Nuremburg Rally” atmosphere. Lost every 50/50, continually played wayward passes to the huns, continually played ourselves into corners under pressure, looked devoid of any fight or professional pride to alter what was happening on the pitch. Scales, Hatate, Maeda, Kyogo, Bernardo, McGregor were just awful, but who in reality deserves praise, CCV?
Kasper was suspect at the first goal, Kühn was rubbish, but Jefte left a late one on him in the first 30 seconds on the Main Stand touchline, as well as taking him out with a flailing arm.
Rodgers seemed reluctant to make early changes, that obviously needed made. Instead we bumble on till 62 minutes to freshen it up, but who was to know that the subs would be even worse?
Worst display at Ibrox since 2000 against the deceased club when we lost 4-0
Like that day, we capitulated, and it could have been 7 or 8, not acceptable.
Engels was ill this morning and it wasn’t in the plans to play him, but how many others were under the weather?
There must be some explanation for that performance today.

Etims: FT Zombies 3 #Celtic 0 No excuses, the better team (by far) won easily today. They won every challenge & every second ball. Wanted it so much more. Our passing was also dire. Reverted back to slow, slow, slow in defence. Perspective (11 points clear) needed but that was dreadful. Somehow we look like a team running on fumes and its only January The Scales Carter Vickers passathon has to be addressed. Midfielders all facing own goal and yet offering no options to Centres and they go back to Kaspar. Time for Brendan to earn his cash.

Hail Hail History @hailhailhistory · 1h A very poor day for Celtic. Rangers wanted it more. Rodgers takes the blame for not adapting to Rangers’ tactics, the same way they played in the final. Still, given the choice, I’d prefer to have lost today but be 11 ahead having won the League Cup.

Celtic Curio @Celticcurio · 30m Arne Engels struck by a missile thrown by Rangers fans. Time for stand closures at Ibrox. The last few seasons have seen the club physio needing stitches to a head wound and glass thrown into the Celtic goalmouth.

Graham Spiers @GrahamSpiers · 41m That was a brilliant Rangers performance. A totally deserved 3-0 win over Celtic. Does this put the tin lid on the “Clement is a magician…no, wait…Clement has to go” brigade? Off the field, in the stands, Rangers’ fans bigotry was at full pitch. A thorough embarrassment.

Everything Celtic @aboutceltic · Look, we’ve had a shocker there there’s no getting away from that. Our first defeat domestically since March 2024 but I’ll stick by it, we’ve already won the league. The good news is we can’t play that bad again, on to the next one. One position I’d like to see us address this year is an aggressive CDM. I feel we really lack a Wanyama type player at the heart of the pitch, in particular matches like today we can be a little lightweight there. Priorities remain a LB & LW but I’d like to see this too

Teams

Celtic:

Manager: Brendan Rodgers

Formation: 4 – 3 – 3
01 K. Schmeichel
03 G. Taylor, subbed for Álex Valle at 64mins
05 L. Scales
20 C. Carter-Vickers
02 A. Johnston
41 R. Hatate, subbed for A. Engels at 75mins
42 C. McGregor (c), Captain 33′, Yellow Card at 33mins
28 Paulo Bernardo, subbed for L. McCowan at 64mins
38 D. Maeda
08 K. Furuhashi, subbed for A. Idah at 64mins
10 N. Kühn 61′, Yellow Card at 61mins

Subs:
27 A. Engels
09 A. Idah
14 L. McCowan
07 L. Palma
56 A. Ralston
12 V. Sinisalo
06 A. Trusty
11 Álex Valle
13 Yang Hyun-Jun

TheRangers

Manager: Philippe Clement

Formation: 4 – 2 – 3 – 1

31 L. Kelly
22 Jefté 45’+2, Yellow Card at 45mins plus 2, subbed for R. Fraser at 91mins
04 R. Pröpper
21 D. Sterling
03 R. Yılmaz
43 N. Raskin (c), Captain45’+6, Yellow Card at 45mins plus 6, subbed for C. Barron at 95mins
10 M. Diomande
30 I. Hagi, subbed for Ó. Cortés at 95mins
14 N. Bajrami, subbed for Danilo at 80mins
18 V. Černý
29 H. Igamane, subbed for C. Dessers at 94mins

Subs:
08 C. Barron
07 Ó. Cortés
09 C. Dessers
20 K. Dowell
47 R. Fraser
54 M. Munn
38 L. King
17 R. Matondo
99 Danilo

Goals:

I. Hagi (7′)
R. Pröpper (66′)
Danilo (81′)

Assists:
N. Raskin (7′)

Referee Don Robertson
Video Assistant Referee Nick Walsh
Assistant Referee 1 David Roome
Assistant Referee 2 Ross MacLeod
Fourth Official Matthew MacDermid
Assistant VAR Official Daniel McFarlane
Venue:Ibrox Stadium
Attendance:51,065

Articles

Match Report (see below)

Pictures

Match Pictures

Stats

Overall possession
Rangers 39.4% Celtic 60.6%

Shots
Rangers 24 Celtic 4

Shots on target
Rangers 9 Celtic 1

Total touches inside the box
Rangers 26 Celtic 20

Goalkeeper saves
Rangers 1 Celtic 6

Fouls
Rangers 11 Celtic 13

Corners
Rangers 8 Celtic 4

Advanced match stats
Shots
Rangers 24 Celtic 4

Shots on target
Rangers 9 Celtic 1

Shots off target
Rangers 6 Celtic 3

Blocked shots
Rangers 9 Celtic 0

Attempts out of box
Rangers 12 Celtic 1

Hit woodwork
Rangers 2 Celtic 0

Total offside
Rangers 2 Celtic 3

Total tackles
Rangers 16 Celtic 16

Won tackles
Rangers 12 Celtic 8

Fouls
Rangers 11 Celtic 13

Total yellow cards
Rangers 2 Celtic 2

Total clearances
Rangers 24 Celtic 34

Headed clearances
Rangers 11 Celtic 20

Duels won
Rangers 39 Celtic 44

Errors leading to shots
Rangers 0 Celtic 2

Total passes
Rangers 345 Celtic 542

Accurate passes
Rangers 251 Celtic 456

Backward passes
Rangers 74 Celtic 74

Forward passes
Rangers 139 Celtic 163

Total long balls
Rangers 89 Celtic 29

Successful final third passes
Rangers 85 Celtic 78

Total crosses
Rangers 17 Celtic 11

Touches
Rangers 527 Celtic 735

Touches in the box
Rangers 26 Celtic 20

Dispossessed
Rangers 8 Celtic 11

Goalkeeper saves
Rangers 1 Celtic 6

Diving saves
Rangers 1 Celtic 2

Saved shots from inside the box
Rangers 1 Celtic 1

Saved shots from outside the box
Rangers 0 Celtic 5

Keeper throws
Rangers 1 Celtic 6

Goal kicks
Rangers 9 Celtic 6

Punches
Rangers 1 Celtic 1

Articles

Derby disappointment for Celtic

https://www.celticfc.com/news/2025/january/02/derby-disappointment-for-celtic/
First Team

By Paul Cuddihy, Celtic View Editor

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02 Jan 2025, 5:22 pm

Scottish Premiership
Thursday, January 2, 2024
Ibrox Stadium, Glasgow

RANGERS… 3
(Hagi 6, Propper 65, Danilo 81)

CELTIC… 0

It was a rarer day or derby disappointment for Celtic as they lost 3-0 to Rangers at Ibrox.

Although the Hoops looked lively in the opening exchanges, it was the home side who opened the scoring in the sixth minute with what was their first attack.

Picking up possession from a slack pass in the middle of the park, rangers drove to the edge of the area where the ball was laid off to Ianis Hagi, and his low left-foot shot ended up in the back of the net.

Rangers came close to adding to their lead in the 13th minute when his shot took a deflection off Liam Scales and hit the bar.

Scales then played a long ball over the top of the Rangers defence, which almost found Kyogo, while Daizen Maeda cut in from the left and hit a shot that was off target as the Hoops looked to find a way back into the game.

Celtic’s best chance of the half didn’t come until added time, when a Reo Hatate snapshot from a corner was well-saved by Liam Kelly.
39%

Possession
61%
24

Shots
4
9

Shots On Target
1
8

Corners
4
11

Fouls
13

Cards

In the second-half, Celtic did have the ball in the net when Kyogo latched on to a ball over the top from Paulo Bernardo.

The striker took a touch and then lobbed the ball over the keeper and into the net, but his goal was ruled out for offside following a VAR review.

On 65 minutes, Rangers doubled their lead when Robin Propper slid in at the back post to fire the ball home from a corner.

And with nine minutes remaining, substitute Danilo made it 3-0 to the home side with a close-range finish.

It was a disappointing start to 2025 for Celtic, who will now look to get back to winning ways when they play host to St Mirren this Sunday.

Rangers: Kelly, Yilmaz, Sterling, Pröpper, Jefté (Fraser 91′), Diomande, Raskin (Barron 95′), Cerny, Bajrami (Danilo 80′), Hagi (Cortés 95′), Igamane (Dessers 94′)

Subs: Cortés, Barron, Dessers, Matondo, Dowell, King, Fraser, Munn, Danilo

Celtic: Schmeichel, Alistair Johnston, Carter-Vickers, Scales, Taylor (Valle 64′), Paulo Bernardo (McCowan 64′), McGregor, Hatate (Engels 75′), Kühn, Kyogo (Idah 64′), Maeda

Subs: Trusty, Palma, Idah, Valle, Sinisalo, Hyunjun Yang, McCowan, Engels, Ralston
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BBC

Martin Dowden
BBC Sport Scotland at Ibrox

Rangers reduced Celtic’s Scottish Premiership lead to 11 points in stunning style as Philippe Clement claimed his first derby victory at the seventh time of asking.

Ianis Hagi early on, then Robin Propper and Danilo after the break, produced the decisive moments as the home side overwhelmed their opponents in front of a raucous home support.

Victory ends a barren run of results for Rangers against Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic, who had only tasted defeat once in 20 derby matches prior to this outcome.

However, a little of the sheen was taken off the occasion when Celtic’s Arne Engels was hit by what appeared to be a coin thrown from the crowd.

His manager confirmed afterwards that the player was unharmed.

Rangers reaction & have your say

The latest from the Celtic camp

Pressure had been mounting on the Ibrox side after falling so far adrift of their rivals off the back of a defeat at St Mirren and draw at Motherwell over the festive period.

Their problems seemingly intensified with Jack Butland joining captain James Tavernier and centre-back John Souttar on the sidelines and Celtic’s bright start suggested they might exploit that.

How wrong that idea proved to be.

Rangers took a firm grip of the game, showing incredible intensity and threat throughout and got their reward when Hagi’s accurate strike from 25 yards found the bottom corner.

That, crucially, got the crowd behind them as Clement’s side pressed relentlessly and entirely disrupted Celtic’s rhythm.

Vaclav Cerny came close to a second when his shot deflected off Cameron Carter-Vickers and onto the crossbar and Reo Hatate was denied by Liam Kelly just before half-time in Celtic’s first attempt.

But the anticipated response from the league leaders after the break just didn’t materialise. This was not Celtic’s day, nowhere near it.

Cerny hit the inside of a post, then was denied by Schmeichel, but Rangers were in no mood to let this derby slip and found the crucial second goal when Propper slammed home from a set piece.

The gloss was added when Jefte’s shot was blocked and Danilo was on hand to gleefully finish.

A vital, vital win for Rangers and a fully deserved one.
Rangers rampant in comprehensive win
Danilo of RangersImage source, SNS

Rangers were depleted in terms of personnel. Not many home fans came to Ibrox convinced a win was on the cards.

They had the significant matter of that 14-point gap to eat into and it was surely non-negotiable to take three points back in front of their own supporters.

Their approach resembled just that. They produced a level of performance that left Celtic struggling for answers and it’s not often that’s happened of late.

They were rampant, winning second balls, forcing errors from their opponents and constantly carrying threat.

Had the scoreline been wider, it would have been hard to argue having hit the woodwork twice.

It’s such a big moment for the club. Defeat would have been unthinkable. Clement getting this first derby win over the line is so important.

They remain a long, long way back in the title race but this will appease many Rangers fans, who had simply had enough, for now.

Their side need to back this up consistently, but have shown the levels they can reach.
Celtic completely out of sorts

Celtic came into this in as good a place as you can get. All the pressure was on their opponents and Rodgers knew it.

In the opening couple of minutes it looked like they would seize the initiative. That was an entirely false dawn as Rangers took a grip and got a vital early lead.

They lacked precision in their passing, to a large extent because they were pressured.

Time and time again they gave up possession as Rangers harried and harrassed. It was so unlike the Celtic we have seen this season.

They just couldn’t muster an answer.

Rodgers’ side have earned such a sizeable lead in the table that they will remain odds on to retain their title but this, and the manner of it, will undoubtedly hurt.
Celtic manager Brendan RodgersImage source, SNS
What they said

Rangers manager Philippe Clement: “The boys get the reward they deserved, what they did not get in the last few weeks.

“Things were not on our side. Even with injuries and changing a lot, everyone in the squad is working hard to get better and better. This is proof of that. We need to continue like this for the next couple of months.

“It is a very important win. It gives belief to everyone following Rangers. This new squad is building, there is a lot of potential in it and we will work hard to make it better. That is my job to do, and my mission, also.”

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers: “Rangers were the better team. We were not aggressive enough without the ball. On the ball, it was far too slow.

“I’m not sure if the 14-point gap took the edge off, it shouldn’t, but maybe subconsciously it can do. We did not play well and Rangers deserved to win.

“It was one of those days. They are not robots. The energy in the stadium, they wanted to prove a point, they hadn’t beaten us and they are so far behind in the league, so there are many reasons why.”
Martin Dowden
BBC Sport Scotland at Ibrox