Here’s Ewan Murray’s report from Hampden.
Jota, the match-winner, speak to Viaplay: “We knew it was going to be tough game. We were prepared and we put in a good shift. In these big games, we always come and show the best version of ourselves and we done so again today.
Sometimes people only look at the scoresheet, but the guys at the back have been tremendous, nobody sees the sacrifices they make.
For once, hard not to disagree with Chris Sutton. Carter-Vickers was the best player on the Hampden ploughed field.
Well played Celtic absolutely relentless. Cameron Carter- Vickers wis a warrior🍀👏👏 … maybe we will see the real Rangers next time #Bealeball
— Chris Sutton (@chris_sutton73) April 30, 2023
Stark.
FULL-TIME: Rangers 0-1 Celtic pic.twitter.com/QI7vyGgLjI
— Rangers Football Club (@RangersFC) April 30, 2023
Celebratory.
Booking our spot for the #ScottishCup Final! 💚#CELRAN | #COYBIG🍀 pic.twitter.com/bJSHnnhCxX
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) April 30, 2023
It’s Inverness Caledonian Thistle in the final, and for all the excellence of the Highlanders in getting to Hampden, it looks a penalty kick for Ange’s army.
Full-time: Celtic 1-0 Rangers
It wasn’t pretty, it’s rarely pretty but the Treble looks on for Celtic who are two wins away. Rangers gave their all but never looked capable of landing a blow. Jota the hero has a broad smile as the celebrations begin.
Updated
90+4 min: Celtic seem to be comfortable, and their songs are very loud indeed.
90+3 min: Michael Beale is being regaled by the Celtic fans to the tune of Daydream Believer. Then a ditty that suggests Rangers an an entity can be used as some form of suppository. All good clean fun.
90+2 min: Celtic pushing and pressing back in Rangers’ left-back spot until the ball is launched forward. Ralston goes down after Joe Hart claims.
90+1 min: Five minutes will be added on. Carter-Vickers sends Mooy away, Iwata runs down the clock on the wing.
89 min: Carter-Vickers is again superb as Rangers begin late-stage aerial bombardment. Ridvan cuts inside from the left and then balloons a shot wide. A waste.
88 min: Maeda tries to keep the ball in the corner, but then Rangers get away, requiring Callum McGregor to slide in and tackle, well, foul Hagi.
86 min: Rangers also made a sub. It wasn’t Morelos’s day.
82' SUB: A change for Rangers.
— Rangers Football Club (@RangersFC) April 30, 2023
➡️ ON: Hagi
⬅️ OFF: Morelos
Rangers 0-1 Celtic pic.twitter.com/PX1d0NPCie
84 min: Arfield clatters the ball over when Matondo had laid him up. Kyogo goes off, and Oh comes on.
84' - #CelticFC Substitution:
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) April 30, 2023
🔛 Oh
↩️ Kyogo
🟢1️⃣-0️⃣🔵#CELRAN | #ScottishCup | #COYBIG🍀
82 min: Cantwell booked for a highly cynical lunge as Celtic looked to break away. They make a mess of it.
81 min: It’s really teeming down, and tempers are flaring. Maeda shoulder charges Cantwell and gets booked. Fashion Jr meanwhile decides to cut across and shoot, when doing so only ran him into heavy traffic.
78 min: Celtic corner, then another. The game swinging one way and another. Celtic happy to run down some time. Mooy almost finds Starfelt with a dead ball, only for it to be cleared by Davies.
76 min: Joe Hart and Carter-Vickers called into action as Rangers build up a head of steam. Then Mooy almost sets up a counter, sliding in the dirt but short of the pace to escape. We’re in the moments of truth now, the challengers are getting more frenzied.
74 min: Two Rangers changes. Barasic will escape a second yellow.
74' SUB: A double change for Rangers.
— Rangers Football Club (@RangersFC) April 30, 2023
➡️ ON: Ridvan & Matondo
⬅️ OFF: Barisic & Raskin
Rangers 0-1 Celtic pic.twitter.com/rKuSuYVVIK
72 min: Rangers, as in the League Cup final, are compiling chances, but seem short of belief.
70 min: Tavernier again, goes close, Barasic curling in a cross from the left, but the header is down and bounces over.
68 min: Alistair Johnston is on crutches, it’s been heavy on casualties.
66 min: Three Celtic subs, feels like Jota’s magic will be sorely missed.
65' - #CelticFC Substitution:
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) April 30, 2023
🔛 Iwata, Mooy & Hakšabanović
↩️ O'Riley, Hatate & Jota
🟢1️⃣-0️⃣🔵#CELRAN | #ScottishCup | #COYBIG🍀
65 min: So close! Tavernier hits the post, played in by Fashion Jr, who then seizes on the rebound and misses an open net. The Rangers fans can’t believe he’s missed.
64 min: Kyogo suddenly sees a gap and speed on, but Arfield comes across him to put off the Japanese magician.
61 min: Another Englishman, Lundstram, tries his luck, but clatters the ball over the bar. Another of Albion’s fair men, Ryan Kent, is now in his tracksuit after being subbed off at half-time.
60 min: Hart has to make a save as Arfield spins and shoots. It’s an easy save but actually the first proper stop the Englishman’s had to make.
Updated
59 min: Fashion Jr attempts to get a header in but fellow sub Ralston stops him getting full purchase. It’s an open game, but Rangers are looking more likely at the moment.
57 min: McGregor has to get down early to make a save from Kyogo, and then from the corner, Jota almost conjures a chance with some impudence.
55 min: Joe Hart and Carter-Vickers almost get in a tangle and Hart orders his defender to get the ball launched. Rangers continue to have the impetus, while Celtic are happy to sit back and counter.
53 min: Looks like Ralston is coming on, with Celtic counting the walking wounded. Johnston limps off down the tunnel, and it looks a painful one. It’s tipping doon in Glasgae.
50 min: Johnston and Perisic smash into each other, both highly committed. No malice, just Old Firm fever.
49 min: Heroism from Carter-Vickers who clears after Cantwell’s ball comes in, and the American, on the goalline, hurls himself on the line.
48 min: Rangers’ drive for parity continues, they are pushing on. Celtic clinging on.
46 min: Morelos begins as if he’s had a flea in his ear, more Lou Beatle than Michael Beale.
The teams come back out, and there’s been changes from Michael Beale. It never really got going for Ryan Kent, did it?
SUB: A change for the second-half.
— Rangers Football Club (@RangersFC) April 30, 2023
➡️ ON: Fashion Jr
⬅️ OFF: Kent
Rangers 0-1 Celtic pic.twitter.com/U3nWO0A4QM
Updated
Half-time: Rangers 0-1 Celtic
Barasic closes out the half with what looks a dive. Odd move for someone on a yellow. He gets away with it, but Rangers did not get away with being so lax for Jota’s goal. The Treble is on…
45+2 min: Ryan Kent’s ball is claimed by Joe Hart, now rather less forceful in driving teammates forward.
45 min: Three minutes added on to the half.
43 min: Mick Beale looks rather annoyed on the sidelines.
Goal! Rangers 0-1 Celtic (Jota, 42)
Kent falls asleep in conceding a cheap free-kick. It’s taken quickly and chips over for Haeda to head in. Poor defending from Rangers, imaginative stuff from Celtic.
Updated
41 min: Joe Hart shows energy and passion when he catches a ball knocked in by Cantwell and order his teammates down the field.
40 min: Lungbursting from Lundstram, and he forces a corner.
38 min: Maeda gets away down the left, and his cross finds Kyogo whose first touch means his second is a tackle.
36 min: That Tillman injury, a hamstring, has rather lessened the contest.
34 min: Tillman goes down, that’s it for him, and he’s very upset about that. Tearful, in fact. Scott Arfield comes on as the first sub of the game.
Updated
31 min: Tillman smashes into a challenge on Taylor and looks to have hurt himself, twanging a muscle or two.
29 min: Johnson bursts out of the Celtic defence and tries to put Jota through. No dice this time.
28 min: Both teams a bit hurried….this is the Old Firm.
26 min: Celtic try and reassert the patient play of before, and it soon brings Jota into play. Rangers panic. And Barasic commits a yellow card foul as Allan McGregor, he of just another game, comes into action for the first time when making a save.
23 min: It’s now an even contest, and Rangers perhaps look the more likely.
22 min: The next corner is cleared too. But Cantwell’s nod down is intelligent and causes havoc. Tillman is too slow to react.
20 min: Lovely arcing ball from Cantwell, Hoddle-esque, and the ball find Kent, and Rangers get a corner. James Tavernier will take, as per. Carter-Vickers heads behind at the back post.
18 min: It’s all Celtic, but Maeda has to run back to stop a Rangers counter. Then Jota goes back to help. All hands on Ange’s deck.
16 min: Kari Tulinius gets in touch: “Thanks for mentioning Viaplay. I had checked the TV guide, and seeing nothing, assumed the Scottish Cup wasn’t on TV here in Finland. But it’s on the streaming service. Annoyingly, instead of this match they have a replay of Brentford-Forest on TV, and five different channels devoted to the Formula One race. Maybe if Glen Kamara was a starter, they’d’ve stuck it on TV. Mind you, the cracking atmosphere travels well enough through the app.”
It’s a pretty obscure channel here, Kari. Used to be Premier Sports, but seems Nordic TV execs saw a gap in the UK market. Plenty of Nordic drama on offer too. And Dutch darts.
14 min: Jota, his mullet and tache resplendent, think Terry Sullivan circa 86, is beginning to be more involved. His cross is headed in the wrong direction by Maeda.
12 min: Raskin has to hurry back to usher Maeda off the field.
10 min: Cantwell breaks away after making an interception, and then with nobody around him hacks the ball away. Morelos was a possible out-ball but perhaps the warm breath of Celtic defenders forced that mistake. He did look to be fouled. Play waved on. Let it flow.
9 min: Celtic now regaining calm, and looking for the passes to send away their forwards. Rangers looking to get it launched.
7 min: Panic as Jota closes Rangers’ Davies down and he is forced to hoof out to the sidelines.
6 min: Maeda makes a mess of a fine ball through from Kyogo just when Rangers had offered up plenty of space.
5 min: The tussles are full of vim, and there’s no moments of calm. Celtic yet to do much with the ball.
3 min: It looks like Rangers are well up for this. Lundstram is lucky not to be booked for clattering Kyogo.
1 min: And still shrouded in smoke, they are away. Raskin decides to see if the goalie is unsighted, but Joe Hart bundles behind.
The noise is deafening, the smoke is thick, Hampden is 50/50 between the two groups of fans. The huddle is done, and Willie Collum is now the fourth official. A still day and it means the smoke takes a long time to diffuse. There’s a delay in the kick-off.
Injury news: Willie Collum, the match referee, has pulled up lame. The fourth official, Don Robertson, will ref the game. This appears to have gone down well with Rangers fans.
Ange Postecoglou speaks to Viaplay: “Should be a great atmosphere, I’m looking forward to it. Our creatives forces back in the team, Both ready to go. You don’t rock up the play the big games hoping it will happen today. So far these lads for the last 20-odd months have been great.”
Michael Beale, the Rangers manager, speaks to Viaplay: “It could end the season on a real high. It’s a huge game, it’s a game that could make or break going into the summer. I’m looking forward to the game….I’ve asked the guys to take the handbrake. The time for talking is now done.”
Allan McGregor, playing in his 250th Old Firm game (probably) affects a cool disinterest as he speaks to Viaplay: “Just another game, obviously it’s a big game, but you have to prepare like it’s just another game.”
Updated
Ewan Murray runs the rule over the usual suspects.
Beale is not without error. He made rookie mistakes during the League Cup final defeat by Celtic. Nonetheless, he has rapidly discovered that Rangers can look fluent against dross in the Scottish Premiership without being at all convincing when stakes are raised. He is worthy of an opportunity to alter that, including by pressing home knowledge of the club he is so keen to stress he garnered as a coach under Steven Gerrard. Beating Celtic on Sunday would deliver a morale boost but in bigger-picture terms Rangers need to rejuvenate themselves as an efficient and effective club. Neither presently applies.
And some prime Scottish Cup memories from Martyn Ramsay.
Stuart McCall discovered the reality of life as a Rangers player when he took his family out for a Chinese meal after they had lost at home to Celtic on 21 March 1992 – 10 days before the teams would meet again in the semi-final. “Everyone was down after the match, but the table was there for 8.30pm so we still went out,” he recalled in his autobiography. “To my amazement as we were strolling in this little Chinese guy came up to us and started shouting about how bloody useless Rangers were. He took our coats into the cloakroom, but came back with a Rangers scarf and proceeded to stamp on it in disgust, saying Rangers were bloody rubbish today!
Caley Thistle lie in wait in the final.
For Rangers, Connor Goldson is back after missing the last three games with injury. Ryan Kent also starts. Reo Hatate and Jota come in for Celtic. Both managers seem to be risking star players who are coming back from injury. It’s all on this.
The teams are in...
Rangers: McGregor, Tavernier, Goldson, Davies, Barisic, Lundstram, Raskin, Cantwell, Tillman, Kent, Morelos. Subs: McLaughlin, Ridvan, Hagi, Souttar, Matondo, Kamara, Wright, Sakala, Arfield
Celtic: Hart, Johnston, Carter-Vickers, Starfelt, Taylor, McGregor, Hatate, O’Riley, Jota, Maeda, Kyogo. Subs: Bain, Haksabanovic, Mooy, Turnbull, Kobayashi, Oh, Iwata, Ralston, Vata
Preamble
Here we are again, for the fifth of sixth meetings between the traditional rivals. And so far this season, it’s all coming up Celtic, who have won three from four Old Firm meetings and the last time they met at Hampden, in the Scottish League Cup final, they won thanks to two goals from Kyogo Furuhashi. Ange Postecoglou continues to be flamin’ master of all he surveys while Michael Beale is under some pressure. But that’s the way it goes in this eternal rivalry, when one’s up, the other’s almost certainly down.
Kick-off is at 1.30pm Glasgow/London time. Join me.
