The honours may have been shared but there was only one winner at Ibrox yesterday. That Celtic managed to salvage a draw from the eye of a thunderous Old Firm storm allowed the champions to escape back to the other side of the city with a nine-point lead at the top and their title defence intact.
And that was probably about as much as they could possibly have hoped for after being on the receiving end of a derby-day roughing-up at the home of their old neighbours. In fact, Celtic only turned up for about 20 minutes at the start of this one and in that time they did enough to take an early lead through Daizen Maeda.
This was to the considerable angst of a Rangers support that growled in disapproval all the way to the half-time break, even though long before then their own side was actually seizing control of the contest right in front of their eyes. Two goals at the start of the second half lifted the mood of the locals but just when it seemed Michael Beale was on the cusp of notching up a major victory, his players contrived to give it away two minutes from time.
And that’s why the Englishman seemed underwhelmed by it all in the immediate aftermath even though this was a pretty explosive, utterly compelling encounter from start to finish. Given time to reflect, Beale may come to the conclusion he passed his first big test with flying colours, given the brutal nature of some of the beatings dished out to his team in this fixture over the last couple of seasons.
Perhaps it’s no wonder he couldn’t hide his disappointment because he will know too this was an opportunity missed. And that his hopes of working some kind of managerial miracle in his first campaign most probably left the building as Celtic’s team bus pulled away from outside the front doors.
Both managers had to juggle with some difficult decisions even before a ball was kicked. In the green corner, Ange Postecoglou handed a debut to new boy Alistair Johnston in order to redeploy Reo Hatate in midfield.
But he also left derby-day specialists Jota and Liel Abada on the bench with Maeda and James Forrest running the flanks. In the blue, Beale chose to stick with his 4-2-2-2 formation rather than add Ryan Jack to beef up his engine room.
While Jack sat it out, Fashion Sakala was in from the start that effectively meant Beale was throwing a major dice. Having promised his team would not take a single backwards step at least the manager was being true to his own word. But it seemed like high-tariff stuff nonetheless.
That Sakala became a major contributor, especially throughout a ferocious second half, vindicated the manager’s bold approach entirely. Of course, there was a moment of considerable controversy too when VAR appeared to pull rank on John Beaton by deciding the referee did not need a second look at a Connor Goldson handball which – had he seen it for himself – might have resulted in a Celtic penalty kick.
Exactly why Beaton was not advised to make his way to the nearest TV screen will have to remain a mystery for the time being but that will do nothing to suppress the levels of paranoia among a Celtic support that revels in the belief officials conspire against their team at every turn. But the truth of the matter is Celtic took more than they deserved from this derby and just enough to render Rangers almost irrelevant as far as the rest of this league campaign is concerned.
A nine-point gap is simply too much for Beale to claw back even though he laid down quite a significant marker yesterday. Rangers started brightly and Ryan Kent fired the first shot of the day in the opening 15 seconds which was indicative of Beale’s aggressive strategy.
But just when they were getting their teeth into Celtic, Alfredo Morelos made a horrible meal of it – sending a blind pass into the path of Maeda who shrugged off a weak James Tavernier tackle before slotting under Allan McGregor. Morelos would go on to have one of those derby days.
He worked Celtic’s central defenders physically and linked up well with his team-mates. But when the big chances came the Colombian’s way he fluffed his lines the way he almost always does when he’s up against green and white shirts.
To his credit, it was his tenacity that forced Joe Hart into some sort of brain freeze midway through the half in a frantic moment that seemed to shift the early momentum from one side to the other. Having closed Hart down he then set up Kent for another crack at goal and even though Hart was able to recover and finger-tip it onto the base of his left-hand post, Celtic found it impossible to recover from this scare.
They also lost Greg Taylor to a hamstring injury and Josip Juranovic’s introduction at left-back did nothing to steady the ship. On the contrary, the Croatian was terrorised by Sakala’s blistering pace and if this is Juranovic’s last contribution as a Celtic player it’s one he’ll be in a hurry to forget.
Morelos too will regret missing the target with two first-half headers that ought to have found the back of Hart’s net. But when Sakala skinned Juranovic at the start of the second half to set up Kent’s stunning equaliser it did feel like the visitors were in trouble.
And when Tavernier crashed an unstoppable penalty high past Hart, Postecoglou must have feared the worst. Kyogo Furuhashi’s late leveller – a scuffy, untidy concession – got Celtic and their manager out of jail. And it just about keeps the top-flight trophy under lock and key for another 18 months at least.
READ NEXT
